‘Stupidest thing': Scientist rips Elon Musk's Mars dream to shreds

News.com.au

16-07-2025

Those who've chosen a career in science follow one rule: you need to doubt yourself.
American astrophysicist and author Adam Becker says it's 'essential to the process', as told to Rolling Stone. After all, you can only start to understand the world if you hold the possibility that what you currently believe may be, well, wrong.
It's a trait that Becker believes tech billionaires don't necessarily share.
In this case, he's talking about SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and his plan to colonise Mars, which he labels as the 'stupidest thing' anyone can choose to do.
'What this sort of crystallised for me,' Becker said to Rolling Stone, 'was that these tech guys – who people think of knowing as a lot about science – actually, don't really know anything about science at all.'
Elon Musk has positioned Mars as a lifeboat in the event that Earth suffers a catastrophic event that makes it no longer livable.
The tech billionaire has boldly claimed a million people could live in a self-sustaining settlement, possibly comprising 'glass domes' on Mars in just 20 years.
'The important thing is that we build a self-sustaining city on Mars as quickly as possible,' Musk previously said during an interview with Senator Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson on the Verdict with Ted Cruz podcast.
'The key threshold is when that city can continue to grow, continue to prosper, even when the supply ships from Earth stop coming at that point, even if something would happen on Earth.
'It might not be World War III – civilisation could die with a bang or a whimper.'
He said it would take another decade and a half to make the planet sustainable for one million people to call it home, claiming, 'I think it can be done in 20 years'.
It's a possibility that doesn't feel totally out of line with today's rapidly increasing innovation and technology. After all, Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos's space company, recently sent six women to space on its New Shepard rocket, including Katy Perry, who marks the world's first pop star to visit space.
But Becker believes that even if Musk's theory of civilisation on Earth dying off, it still wouldn't make Mars a better option for humans to inhabit.
'Earth is always going to be a better option no matter what happens to Earth,' he said.
'Like, we could get hit with an asteroid the size of the one that killed off the dinosaurs, and Earth would still be more habitable.
'We could explode every single nuclear weapon, and Earth would still be more habitable.
'We could have the worst-case scenario for climate change, and Earth would still be more habitable.
'Any cursory examination of any of the facts about Mars makes it very clear.'
Brutal. But while it sounds harsh, he's not the only person to voice criticism.
Canadian-American theoretical physicist and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss also believes that Musk may have his sights set a little too high when it comes to exploring life in space.
'What happens is, governments lead the way and then once we know how to do things, industry can generally improve upon it and do it cheaper and we'll see that,' he previously told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
'I think the future of near-Earth exploration will be industry, but it gets so much more expensive and so much more dangerous.
'I think Elon is underestimating both of those, even though he's very ambitious and he's able to do things that they didn't think would be possible.'
Starship tests have already been marred by two failures this year.
In its latest attempt earlier this year in March, the uncrewed Starship spacecraft exploded minutes after taking off from Texas.
Footage shared on social media shows debris from the rocket, which was on its eighth test flight, streaking across the sky near Florida and the Bahamas.
'During Starship's ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost,' SpaceX wrote on X.
'Our team immediately began co-ordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses.
The company noted it would review the data from the test flight 'to better understand root cause'.