Elon Musk mission to Mars could RUIN the Red Planet, scientist warns
This week, Elon Musk made the staggering claim that a city of one million people will be thriving on Mars within 30 years.
Now, a leading scientist has warned that Musk’s plan could prove disastrous.
Professor Andrew Coates, a physicist and Mars researcher from UCL, argues that human settlers would contaminate the planet and jeopardise the search for alien life.
He claims humanity should only send a single astronaut to Mars if we ever want to learn the truth about life in our solar system.
Speaking on the Today Programme, Professor Coates said: ‘The last thing we need to be doing is taking life from Earth to Mars. Robotic exploration is the way to go.’
As Elon Musk shares his plans for a city of one million people on Mars by 2054, a leading scientist has warned that this could be disastrous (file photo)
As Elon Musk shares his plans for a city of one million people on Mars by 2054, a leading scientist has warned that this could be disastrous (file photo)
On October 13, SpaceX successfully landed the Super Heavy booster on its launch platform where it was caught by a pair of mechanical arms
On October 13, SpaceX successfully landed the Super Heavy booster on its launch platform where it was caught by a pair of mechanical arms
Musk’s new claims about the future of human exploration on Mars come as SpaceX makes its biggest breakthrough to date.
Musk’s new claims about the future of human exploration on Mars come as SpaceX makes its biggest breakthrough to date.
The booster carried a 3,000-tonne rocket 40 miles (65km) into the air before detaching and guiding itself back to the launch pad where it was caught in the chopstick-like ‘Mechazilla’ arms.
The booster is the largest ever designed by SpaceX and is needed to carry the huge Starship spacecraft into orbit.
This success raised hopes for cheaper, more efficient space travel capable of carrying settlers and resources to Mars.
Writing on X shortly after Super Heavy’s landing, Musk said: ‘If civilization is reasonably stable for the next ~30 years, a self-sustaining city of a million+ people will be built on Mars.’
However, Professor Coates warns that building a human settlement on this scale would create serious problems for scientists.
He added: “Eventually Elon Musk would like to be taking people to the moon and potentially onto Mars but I think we have to be a bit careful with the latter one.
“We have to be very careful in the way we prepare missions, doing lots of cleaning of the technology, to make sure we’re not taking life to Mars and measuring that. That’s the last thing we want to do.”
With Thanks Reference to: https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/techandscience/elon-musks-mission-to-mars-could-ruin-the-red-planet-scientist-warns/ar-AA1sj4DY and https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/elon-musk-s-mission-to-colonise-mars-will-ruin-the-planet-top-scientist-warns/ar-AA1smnG8?ocid=BingNewsSerp
