multiplanetary species Concepts

Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race

by Tim Fernholz · 20 Mar 2018 · 328pp · 96,141 words

, and the program manager for the Falcon 1. “Elon founded this company to revolutionize access to space, with the ultimate goal of making humankind a multiplanetary species. There are a lot of people in the industry today that can rally behind that mission . . . and the focus is on Mars.” But the Falcon

Elon Musk

by Walter Isaacson · 11 Sep 2023 · 562pp · 201,502 words

. When Cantrell got home and was able to call him back, Musk explained his vision. “I want to change mankind’s outlook on being a multiplanetary species,” he said. “Can we meet this weekend?” Cantrell had been leading a cloak-and-dagger life because of his dealings with Russian authorities, so he

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of ‘Electric cars don’t work,’ and we’d never get to sustainable energy.” Nor could he abandon SpaceX. “We might then never be a multiplanetary species.” The more people pressed him to choose, the more he resisted. “For me emotionally, this was like, you got two kids and you’re running

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.” Yes, but why? Musk had founded SpaceX, he liked to say, to increase the chances for the survival of human consciousness by making us a multiplanetary species. The grand rationale for Tesla and SolarCity was to lead the way to a sustainable energy future. Optimus and Neuralink were launched to create human

A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?

by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith · 6 Nov 2023 · 490pp · 132,502 words

have the technology, the capital, and the desire to go beyond the age of quick forays to the Moon and seize our destiny as a multiplanetary species. Well . . . maybe not. If you’re like most of the nonexperts we’ve talked to as we researched this book, you might have some ideas

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of earthly calamity. There may be good reasons never to build a backup copy—not because we can’t do it, but because having a multiplanetary species may not actually render humanity’s existence more secure. 19. Space Politics by Other Means: On the Possibility of Space War Who controls low-Earth

Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets That Launched a Second Space Age

by Eric Berger · 23 Sep 2024 · 375pp · 113,230 words

because of this potential for financial reward. Others came because they truly believed in Musk’s messianic mission to settle Mars and make humans a multiplanetary species. Working at SpaceX offered the best chance on Earth to make science fiction dreams a reality, and many employees relished being part of the journey

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preserved, he said. But eventually an asteroid, particularly virulent pandemic, or a nuclear conflict would end our civilization. To avoid this, we must become a multiplanetary species. Mars is far from a paradise. Indeed, it is far less hospitable than the most barren desert or frozen tundra on Earth. But it is

The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos

by Christian Davenport · 20 Mar 2018 · 390pp · 108,171 words

friends. Why are you showing me these slides of the desert?’” In founding SpaceX, Musk believed that in addition to trying to make humans a multiplanetary species—with the ultimate goal of sending people to Mars—he saw space travel as the greatest adventure ever, even greater than the quixotic searches for

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press room in Guadalajara was overflowing with reporters who had come from all over the world for this long-awaited speech, titled “Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species,” in which Musk would, finally, lay out his plan to colonize Mars. In the months leading up to Guadalajara, he disclosed some of the details

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the cost of spaceflight, perhaps by a factor of a hundred or more—“the key to opening up space, and becoming a spacefaring civilization, a multiplanetary species and having the future be incredibly exciting and inspiring.” AS IT RECOVERED from its explosion and moved through 2017, SpaceX screamed ahead, full force, racing

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New Details on His ‘Mind Blowing’ Mission to Mars,” Washington Post, June 10, 2016. “So,” he said, “how do we figure out”: “Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species,” http://www.spacex.com/mars. “The priorities of all of our customers”: “United Launch Alliance Announces Rapid Launch, the Industry’s Fastest Order to Launch

Rocket Dreams: Musk, Bezos and the Trillion-Dollar Space Race

by Christian Davenport · 6 Sep 2025 · 441pp · 127,950 words

cost of access to space, an endeavor that would help bring about the most significant achievement that humanity could accomplish in his lifetime: becoming a multiplanetary species. In June 2017, I traveled to interview Musk at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, just outside of Los Angeles. If there was an aesthetic to

Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX

by Eric Berger · 2 Mar 2021 · 304pp · 89,879 words

save Earth from climate change, helping to break humans from their fossil fuel addiction. And SpaceX would offer a backup plan by making humanity a multiplanetary species. He split his money between the two companies. Amid these bleak financial times, SpaceX had one final card to play. In 2006, NASA had come

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drops into the ocean, space will remain cost prohibitive for all but a few wealthy nations and a few exclusive astronauts. To make humanity a multiplanetary species, Musk sought to lower the cost of getting into space and flying onward to other worlds. The early returns on the reuse experiment were, nonetheless

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years at SpaceX because Musk pushed them relentlessly. His schedules were invariably aggressive. Time was money. This window to reach Mars and make humanity a multiplanetary species, Musk fears, may not remain open forever. And Musk’s own lifetime was finite. This brutal devotion to speed got results. The first Falcon 1

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fifth-richest person in the world. Yet at his core, Musk remains the same passionate, nerdy, driven person who founded SpaceX to make humans a multiplanetary species. He still speaks with the same earnestness about Mars. Only a goal that seemed preposterous in 2002 now merely seems audacious. During discussions when I

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, 36–44, 46, 141, 142 thrust chamber firing, 27–28 at TRW, 32, 33–34, 37, 41, 43–44 at University of Idaho, 30–31 Multiplanetary species, 12, 217, 232, 244, 256 Musk, Elon author’s interview with, 35–36 failure as an option, 24–25 Falcon 1 end of, 223–24

The Moon: A History for the Future

by Oliver Morton · 1 May 2019 · 319pp · 100,984 words

-eggs-in-the-same-basket disasters. In a messy mix of cosmic compassion and messianic self-belief, Mr Musk is set on making humanity a multiplanetary species, and Mars—eventually, a terraformed Mars—is the first step on that road. Its mixture of mystique, new challenges and science has ensured that whenever

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SpaceX in 2003 it was to do real things: to launch satellites, to sell services, to reinvent the human condition by making Homo sapiens a multiplanetary species. Package holidays for plutocrats were not part of the plan. As a provider of practical services to industry and government, SpaceX has succeeded beyond almost

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from Barnouw (1970). For Elon Musk’s achievements and character, see Vance (2015), and for what was the latest version of his infrastructure for a multiplanetary species (but will probably be superseded by the time you read this), see Musk (2018). Robert Zubrin’s Moon proposal is Zubrin (2018). Miller et al

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

by Ashlee Vance · 18 May 2015 · 370pp · 129,096 words

die thinking that humanity has a bright future,” he said. “If we can solve sustainable energy and be well on our way to becoming a multiplanetary species with a self-sustaining civilization on another planet—to cope with a worst-case scenario happening and extinguishing human consciousness—then,” and here he paused

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a gun,” Cantrell said. When the meeting finally took place, Musk and Cantrell hit it off. Musk rolled out his “humans need to become a multiplanetary species” speech, and Cantrell said that if Musk was really serious, he’d be willing to go to Russia—again—and help buy a rocket. In

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flaws—glitches in the system—and construct logical paths in their minds to fix them. For Musk, the call to ensure that mankind is a multiplanetary species partly stems from a life richly influenced by science fiction and technology. Equally it’s a moral imperative that dates back to his childhood. In

The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives

by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler · 28 Jan 2020 · 501pp · 114,888 words

is we stay on Earth forever, and then there will be some eventual extinction event… the alternative is to become a spacefaring civilization and a multiplanetary species. I think the future is vastly more exciting and interesting if we’re a spacefaring civilization and a multi-planet species, than if we’re

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our survival: breaking our fossil fuel addiction with a thriving solar economy—i.e., his work with Tesla and Solar Cities—and making humanity a multiplanetary species. But unlike Bezos’s lunar launch point for this migration, Musk’s obsession has always been Mars. In 2001, a year before the sale of