Elon Musk's ambition to build life on Mars is well known. But apparently the richest man in the world has a far more ambitious plan, namely to build an ark made by Noah for humans and animals on the Red Planet.
In an interview with Time magazine when he was named Person of the Year 2021, Musk believes humans will be able to land on Mars within the next five years. He also wants to build an independent city, complete with farms, where humans can live permanently.
To fill the farm, Musk plans to take animals with humans to Mars. Musk says his vision is similar to that of Noah's futuristic ark.
"And the next big thing is to build a self-sustaining city on Mars and bring the animals and creatures of Earth there. A kind of futuristic Noah's ark," Musk said, as quoted by the Science Times, Thursday (16/12/2021).
"However, we're going to be bringing more than two animals - it's kind of weird to only bring two."
Musk added that interplanetary life would be the next evolutionary step. In addition, Mars will also be able to become a second home for humans once the Earth is no longer habitable due to the effects of global warming. Musk has repeatedly said humans should try to get off Earth because a major threat such as an asteroid collision in the future could cause "apocalypse" or major damage.
Musk's plans to bring humans and animals to Mars have received a fairly negative response from scientists. Bringing animals to support human life on Mars may sound reasonable, but the current environment there is not conducive to habitation.
The atmosphere of Mars is currently full of carbon dioxide. To change the surface of Mars so that it resembles Earth and is habitable, it takes processes such as terraforming that require large amounts of money and resources.
One scientist who has doubts about Musk's ambitions is Roger Wiens, who leads the SuperCam laser sensor on NASA's Perseverance rover. Wiens told the Daily Mail that Mars' carbon dioxide-filled atmosphere might be suitable for growing plants, but that animals and humans need oxygen to live.
"Humans may be smart enough to use a respiratory system filled with oxygen, but can animals be smart enough to adapt themselves to a system if they can't stand up? I don't think so," Wiens said.
"We're just going to see a lot of dead animals. Let's try a garden plant first," he added.
Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, also admits to being skeptical of Musk's ambitions. He said it would take humans several centuries to breed animals on Mars.
"Humans can only exist as part of the biosphere - a complex ecology with many species. If one day to build self-sustaining human life on Mars, then we will have to build Noah's ark to some degree," McDowell said.
"Has Musk gotten any closer to achieving this - not at all," he continued.
