Elon Musk says a new study about aliens gives humans even more reason to colonise other planets
Research suggests there’s a 41 per cent chance we’re alone in the Milky Way and a 32 per cent chance we’re alone in the visible universe — and those are the optimistic numbers
By Dave Mosher
Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, has long proselytised for the cause of interplanetary colonisation.
If Earth gets whacked by a giant space rock, a cataclysmic solar storm cripples human electronics, or we cleanse ourselves from the planet in nuclear fire (accidentally or otherwise), it could help to have a backup civilisation on a world like Mars.
To that end, SpaceX has rallied thousands of employees to design and build a next-generation spaceship — the Big Falcon Rocket — that will be capable of ferrying 100 people and 150 tonnes of cargo to the red planet.
Now researchers at Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute have given Musk even more reason to preach his cosmic gospel: A draft of a new study suggests there’s a roughly two-in-five chance we’re alone in our galaxy, and a 1-in-3 chance we’re alone in the entire cosmos.
“It is unknown whether we are the only civilisation currently alive in the observable universe, but any chance that we are is added impetus for extending life beyond Earth,” Musk tweeted on Monday, referring to the study.