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14 Dec, 2015 13:27

Elon Musk worries World War III may stop him conquering Mars

Elon Musk worries World War III may stop him conquering Mars

One of the world’s top visionaries, Elon Musk, sees World War III as a possible potential threat to his plans of colonizing the red planet.

In a recent lengthy interview, the man behind Paypal, Tesla and SpaceX has confessed that he feels another World War is more real than it may seem.

You know, in 1912 they were proclaiming a new age of peace and prosperity, saying that it was a golden age, 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,” he told GQ.

In his inimitable fashion, Musk likens the Mars operation to backing up a computer: "You back up your hard drive.... Maybe we should back up life, too?”

Elon Musk believes Mars is the perfect destination, it just needs a bit of heating. After one of his TV appearances he was quoted for proposing nuking Mars, a bold statement that he later had to explain. 

Musk dismissed earlier comments that he intended to nuke the planet’s surface. He said he wanted to create aerial explosions to heat it up, likening it to placing suns at each pole.

He stresses that now is the time to act and be quick about it, because chances are high that civilization as we know it today may regress in the near future.

In this interview to GQ, Musk also reveals that among other things SpaceX is modeling an entirely new space suit, one that feels good and looks good from every angle. The current dilemma as it stands is that existing space suits have unflattering bulky rears.

"Imagine that you've got to be able to bend over, but it's rigid material—then, when you stand up, it's gonna pooch out really significantly in the back. So we wanted to have something which would not do that.”

Coming from the man behind one of the most beautifully designed cars, the electric Tesla, this is a promise for all the cosmonauts and astronauts out there who are tired of the “poochy look.” 

READ MORE NASA orders first manned SpaceX flight to ISS

On a more serious note, just this November NASA placed an order with SpaceX for a manned mission to the International Space Station in 2017. The Dragon spacecraft can carry up to seven people in lower Earth orbit.

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