With the clock ticking on 2021, TIME Magazine has named its Person of the Year, an honor that is pretty much self-explanatory. This year, it goes to Elon Musk, the oftentimes-controversial Tesla and SpaceX CEO, frequent Twitterer, world’s richest private individual, and a fascinating public figure we seem unable to take our eyes from.
As per usual, TIME sat down with this year’s honoree for a lengthy profile, which covers anything from Musk’s dreams of widespread EV adoption to his opinions on vaccine mandates and whether it is “right” for one man to be worth billions of dollars when millions of people around the world go without food or potable water, and his hopes of colonizing Mars. We’ll focus on that last item on the list now.
Among the reasons TIME chose Musk as the recipient of the Person of the Year title is his “aspir[ation] to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit.” Well, that, and poop-tweeting, which, though admittedly juvenile, is a thing few other people of his standing would even dare to consider.
And the magazine is right; Musk does plan to take us to another planet, as anyone who’s been following the developments over at SpaceX knows. NASA, the mag says, has more or less “abdicated” its position as the leader in space exploration, leaving the spot open for Musk. Electric vehicles might be a passion of his and his biggest source of revenue, but it’s space travel that gets him the most excited.
Musk says he’s positive the first landing on Mars should take place within the next five years. After that, colonization will take place, resulting in what he calls the first “self-sustaining city” on the Red Planet. SpaceX will then ship animals there because Musk is dead serious about relocating the human race to another planet since we’ve already pretty much destroyed the one we’re currently occupying.
“The goal overall has been to make life multi-planetary and enable humanity to become a spacefaring civilization,” Musk says. “And the next really big thing is to build a self-sustaining city on Mars and bring the animals and creatures of Earth there. Sort of like a futuristic Noah’s ark. We’ll bring more than two, though – it’s a little weird if there’s only two.”
He does make a valid point. Pairs of two might’ve worked for Noah, but Musk can’t afford to lose one half of a pair on the way there or, you know, have it refuse to mate. This detail, as funny as it might seem, proves Musk is serious about his colonization plans – and has been so for a very long time.
Until that happens, Musk and his SpaceX will continue to work hard to further space exploration. “I think we can do a loop around the moon maybe as soon as 2023,” Musk casually remarks in the same interview.
To catch up with Musk and see what makes him such a fascinating public figure, here’s the video that accompanies his Time Magazine profile.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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