“Mars is the next natural step, in fact, it is the only planet we really have a shot at, at establishing a self-sustaining city on.” Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s company Space X has its eyes on the red planet and wants to become the ultimate Galactic transportation company that will allow mankind and cargo get safely to the red planet. While the company started off humbly, it has become one of the most important privately owned companies in the space industry. It is the first private company to ever send a spacecraft into orbit, and it is the company responsible for resupplying the ISS.

But the company and Musk’s ideas don’t stop there. That’s just the beginning. The ultimate idea is to colonize Mars.

According to reports, during the StartmeupHK Festival in Hong Kong, the head of Space X answered important questions in regards of SpaceX’s ambitions for the red planet.

During the forum, uploaded to YouTube which you can see here, Elon Musk commented that we have to get to Mars so that, “The light of consciousness is not extinguished.” Musk believes that in the end, it’s only logical to go to Mars, and as he noted in previous interviews with GQ, You back up your hard drive…. Maybe we should back up life, too?”

In the interview, Musk continued and stated that “This will be an incredible adventure, the greatest adventure ever, and there need to be things that inspire people.”

But as with all think, we must have a plan, and according to Musk, SpaceX already has one.

While there is a fair amount of skepticism as to SpaceX’s technical and financial abilities to colonize Mars, in the next couple of decades, Musk believes we have a really good shot at doing it.

Musk said: “at the very least, human missions could begin by about 2025.”

When the moderator asked if this was a rather short time-frame, Musk replied that nine years “seems like a long time to me.”

He added, “I’m hoping to describe that architecture later this year at IAC … and I think that will be quite exciting.”

So with the interview during the StartmeuoHK Festival in Hong Kong, we learned once again, that SpaceX has really big plans on Mars, but as with all things in life… “Dream Big to Achieve Big”, something that Elon Musk understands pretty well.

But it isn’t just that explorer spirit which is pushing us towards Mars, but potential dangers to Earth are a good reason why we need to colonize other planets. In the interview, Musk asserted that we need to go to Mars before we are destroyed. And we are not talking about a natural phenomenon like an asteroid hitting Earth… In the end, the greatest threat to human civilization is human civilization itself.

In previous interviews, Musk talked about the reasons why we must get to Mars, and here is what he had to say:

“There’s a window that could be opened for a long time or a short time where we have an opportunity to establish a self-sustaining base on Mars before something happens to drive the technology level on Earth below where it’s possible.”

“I don’t think we can discount the possibility of a third World War. You know, in 1912 they were proclaiming a new age of peace and prosperity, saying that it was a golden age, the war was over. And then you had World War I followed by World War II followed by the Cold War. So I think we need to acknowledge that there’s certainly a possibility of a third World War, and if that does occur it could be far worse than anything that’s happened before. Let’s say nuclear weapons are used. I mean, there could be a very powerful social movement that’s anti-technology. There’s also growth in religious extremism…?”

Simply put, Musk firmly believes humanity must have a backup plan, just in case something goes wrong, we need to have other strategies put in place which will allow the continuous existence of the human species.