HAS ELON MUSK REALLY THOUGHT THIS MARS THING THROUGH?

Elon Musk

Elon Musk's mad dash to Mars and desire for Earth's inhabitants to be multi-planetary is fueled by his belief that the Sun will "soon engulf" the Earth.

When?

A billion Earth years from now?

Even if Musk could put a timeline to Earth's demise, no one will be around to prove him wrong.

But, if a solar explosion "engulfs" Earth, 93,000,000 miles from the Sun, wouldn't that massive conflagration also consume Earth's closest planetary neighbor, Mars, a mere 147,770,000 miles from the Sun?

Running to Mars to escape the Sun's "engulfment" of Earth seems equivalent to hiding in the weeds adjacent to a forest fire.

Anyway, things are pretty cold on Mars, with an average temperature of -81F and a low of -220F.  

Musk says he will try to "warm Mars up" a little.

As for the oxygen humans and other Earth creatures need to survive, NASA has been working on that.

NASA's Perseverance Rover

NASA's Perseverance Rover that landed on Mars February 18, 2021, was equipped with a device called the MOXIE, Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment.

That device has produced about 9 grams of "breathable oxygen," converting it from CO2.

Mars has no organic matter, no soil in which plants could grow, its surface covered in toxic regolith containing chloride compounds.

There are other barriers we could mention, but, suffice to say, Mars seems inhospitable to human life

Were it not for Musk's speculation about Earth's doom, this planet has room for billions more inhabitants.

Thinly-Populated Mongolia

The huge country of Mongolia has a population density of 1.9 inhabitants per square kilometer(American spelling).

Our northern neighbor, Canada, has only 4 inhabitants per square km.

Even the world's most populous country, China, with 1,477,084,648 people, has many thinly populated regions as does India.

Musk's pursuit of his dream will likely produce equipment or concepts that will prove useful, much as the U.S. space program has done, but his pursuit of Mars as, not only a destination, but prime real estate for Earth's inhabitants, seems to be not well thought out.

Many women have married men over the years with the belief they could "change him."

That usually doesn't work out.

It's much harder to change a planet.