The founder and lead designer of aerospace manufacturer SpaceX Elon Musk revealed that he did not believe in the existence of aliens, as he had seen "no signs of them". The comments were made during the live-streamed SpaceX presentation of the Starship prototype Mark-I in Texas this Saturday.
"As far as we know, we are the only consciousness, the only life that's out there. There might be other life, but we've seen no signs of it…I have not seen any sign of aliens," said Musk as he took to the stage to discuss the future of humanity with the prospect of travelling to other planets like Mars and Saturn in the near future.
SpaceX's CEO also mentioned that a viral "Storm Area 51" event, devoted to breaking into a top-secret US facility that allegedly was hiding proof of alien existence, was nothing but "a popular meme". Musk previously did not lose the opportunity to contribute to the Area 51 craze by frequently engaging in the "See Them Aliens" memes-exchange.
Elon Musk is a well-known advocate of space exploration missions, arguing during the presentation that humanity needed to become a “spacefaring civilization” and “make space travel like air travel”. He also recalled that while we had “only seven hundred million years” left on the Earth before the sun would destroy it, the exploration of space and build-up of self-sustaining cities on other planets like Mars needed to become a priority for humankind.
“Consciousness is a very rare and precious thing, and we should take whatever steps we can to preserve the light of consciousness,” Musk said. “I think we should do our very best to become a multi-planetary species and extend consciousness beyond Earth, and we should do it now.”
The Starship next-generation rocket, unveiled by Musk on 28 September will be launched from Texas in the next few months, as a preparatory stage leading up to a potential long term mission with the goal of “placing humans on Mars” mission.
The first private liquid-fueled rocket, Falcon-I, was sent into orbit by SpaceX precisely 11 years ago today. Since then, the aerospace manufacturer conducted several unique enterprises relating to space exploration, including launching a Tesla Roadster sports car into outer space with a mannequin dressed in a spacesuit.