Elon Musk likely to move to Mars despite ‘good chance of death’

He says there's a 70 per cent chance of him moving there

Elon Musk has said that he is considering moving to Mars onboard one of his SpaceX rockets. “I know exactly what to do,” the Tesla founder told Axios on HBO in an interview. “I’m talking about moving there.” Musk, 47, added that the move could be a permanent one as technology may not yet allow return trips: “We think you can come back but we’re not sure.” He estimates the chance that he'll travel to the red planet at 70 per cent with the price of travel set at around "a couple hundred thousand dollars". The technology could be made publically available in as soon as seven years, he claims. However, Musk said that the potential risks of travel would be great with a "good chance of death" for anybody choosing to make the journey. "Your probability of dying on Mars is much higher than earth," he said. "Really the ad for going to Mars would be like [Sir Ernest] Shackleton’s [supposed] ad for going to the Antarctic. It’s gonna be hard. There’s a good chance of death, going in a little can through deep space." If he does make the trip he said he expects to work “nonstop to build the base”, with “not much time for leisure. And even after doing all this, it’s a very harsh environment. So … there’s a good chance you die there. We think you can come back but we’re not sure. Now, does that sound like an escape hatch for rich people?” Asked why anyone should make the journey at all given the risks, he replied: "There’s lots of people who climb mountains. People die on Mount Everest all the time. They like doing it for the challenge."