In a recent interview, billionaire entrepreneur and SpaceX founder Elon Musk shared a bold and sobering prediction: one day, all life on Earth will be destroyed by the sun. According to Musk, this is the main reason behind his relentless push to make humans a multiplanetary species, starting with Mars.
Speaking with Fox News host Jesse Watters on May 6, Musk emphasized the importance of creating a second home for humanity. “Eventually, all life on Earth will be destroyed by the sun,” he said. “The sun is gradually expanding, and so we do at some point need to be a multiplanet civilization, because Earth will be incinerated.”
This vision isn’t new for Musk, who has often warned about the risks of putting all of humanity’s future on one planet. But his latest comments come with a long-term warning. Scientists agree that in about 450 million years, the Earth will become too hot for life. Oceans will boil, the atmosphere will vanish, and in around five billion years, the sun will expand so much that it will engulf the Earth.
That may sound like a distant concern, but Musk argues it’s reason enough to act now. “That’s one of the benefits of Mars — it’s like life insurance for life collectively,” he told Watters.
Mars, he believes, is our best hope for survival. It’s the most reachable and suitable planet in our solar system for potential colonization. To make this possible, SpaceX has been developing Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built.
So far, Starship has flown eight times, including two test launches in 2025. While both missions had partial success — with the main booster working as expected but the upper stage exploding — SpaceX is moving ahead quickly. The company has already test-fired engines for Starship’s upcoming ninth flight, although a date has yet to be announced.
Starship is key to Musk’s dream of building a self-sustaining city on Mars. Its reusable design aims to make space travel affordable enough for large-scale colonization. If successful, future generations may look back at this period as the beginning of a new chapter in human history.
Musk’s comments also echo his call for governments and private industries to invest more in space technology. “We have a long runway,” he said, referring to the estimated hundreds of millions of years before Earth becomes uninhabitable. “But we must begin the journey now.”
For Musk and many others in the space community, the goal is clear: prepare for the future, or risk losing everything.
As science continues to advance, one thing is certain — the race to Mars is no longer just about exploration. It’s about survival.
