Elon Musk wants to build a city on Mars, but Werner Herzog says the plans is unequivocally a “mistake.”
SpaceX CEO Musk has a plan to send the first humans to Mars in the mid-2020s, using the under-development Starship rocket. Once they get there, Musk wants to build out a self-sustaining, million-strong city on Mars by 2050.
But famed film director Herzog tells Inverse there is a massive flaw in the latter half of Musk’s plan.
In a blistering criticism, Herzog describes the idea as “an obscenity,” and says humans should “not be like the locusts.”
In the interview, conducted earlier this month prior to the release of a new documentary on asteroids, Herzog also compares Musk’s plan to the rise and collapse of communism and fascism in the 20th century. The 21st century will “quickly” end the “technological utopia like colonizing Mars,” he says.
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Herzog is not opposed to going to Mars at all. In fact, the German filmmaker would “love to go [to Mars] with a camera with scientists.” But the long-term vision of a Mars city is a “mistake.”
Herzog’s main concern is that humanity should “rather look to keep our planet inhabitable,” instead of trying to colonize another one.
“We should not be like the locusts, coming, grazing empty our planet, okay, and now where we go next?”
In short, Mars is not a livable place. There is no liquid water at the surface, or air to breathe. Solar wind means inhabitants would be “fried like in a microwave,” Herzog says.
Musk has responded to this kind of criticism before. In 2018, he shared research suggesting water ice exists on Mars in the Korolev crater, and hinted the planet “needs a warmup.” Over time, researchers have detected more than 1.2 million cubic miles of water ice at or near the surface of Mars.
Mars’ water ice reserves.Twitter
Musk has repeatedly mooted a plan to heat up the planet and release stored carbon dioxide, citing a 1993 research paper as evidence it would work. He claims doing so would enable humans to walk around Mars with just a breathing apparatus.
This claim is controversial to say the least. A 2018 study found that if scientists released Mars’s carbon dioxide stores, it would generate an atmosphere of around 15 millibars of pressure — far below the 1,000 millibars found at Earth’s sea level. Musk responded to the research by writing that “there’s a massive amount of CO2 on Mars adsorbed into soil that’d be released upon heating,” but the evidence is lacking.
“The thought alone is an obscenity.”
Researchers have also voiced concerns about the effects of space radiation on Mars. Musk said in 2016 that it’s “not deadly” and “not too big of a deal,” but studies done on the International Space Station and Earth suggest time spent in space does have significant health consequences. To get around the problem, in 2017 Musk proposed solar storm shelters on the ships designed to double up as the first habitats. NASA scientists have proposed a magnetic shield to protect against solar winds, too.
Another problem Herzog has with Musk’s ambitions is to do with the plan to use the refuelable Starship to fly to Mars, set up a base and means to create more fuel, and then let the ships return home or venture out further by establishing bases along the way. While Musk’s plan for a “multi-planetary species” is ambitious, Herzog is not convinced.
“I think Elon Musk stylizes himself as some sort of a technological visionary,” Herzog says. “Because he has to sell his electric cars, wonderful that he does that. He has to sell his reusable rockets. Wonderful that he’s doing it.”
“But I disagree with him when he postulates and preaches about colonizing Mars,” Herzog says.
“And I have to tell not only Elon Musk, but everyone. And so I say it as straightforward as it can be… it is an obscenity. The thought alone is an obscenity.”
SpaceX’s concept art for a settlement on Mars.SpaceX
Musk has been criticized before for focusing on moving to Mars rather than fixing Earth. In a 2019 on-stage appearance with Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire told Musk that Earth “needs more heroes…improving things every day.”
The SpaceX CEO replied: “I think important for us to take the set of actions that are most likely to continue consciousness into the future” — in case something happens to Earth, in other words.
Herzog compares Musk’s utopian vision to that of communism and fascism. Herzog says the 20th century was “in its entirety a mistake,” which brought “the demise of great social utopias” like communism “as being the paradise on earth.”
“No, it failed,” Herzog says. “Second failure, fascism, Aryan master race will dominate and improve our planet Earth and really improve humanity. Thank God, both these gigantic utopias were brought to an end.”
The same will happen to Musk’s Mars city, Herzog predicts.
“Our century very quickly will bring to an end technological utopia like colonizing Mars. We will end this utopia very, very quickly within this century.”
Herzog has discussed Musk’s Mars ambitions with him before. In the 2016 documentary Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, Herzog asked Musk during an interview for a “one-way ticket” to Mars, adding that “I’d be your candidate.”
Musk’s response at the time suggested that he’s aware not everyone shares his enthusiasm: “I do think we’ll want to offer round trips because a lot more people would be willing to go if they think that, if they don’t like it, they can come back,” Musk said.
But if the reason humanity leaves Earth is because our own planet is in a mess, returning home might be easier said than done.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
The European Space Agency is fast-tracking a new mission called Ramses, which will fly to near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis and join the space rock in 2029 when it comes very close to our planet — closer even than the region where geosynchronous satellites sit.
Ramses is short for Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety and, as its name suggests, is the next phase in humanity’s efforts to learn more about near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) and how we might deflect them should one ever be discovered on a collision course with planet Earth.
In order to launch in time to rendezvous with Apophis in February 2029, scientists at the European Space Agency have been given permission to start planning Ramses even before the multinational space agency officially adopts the mission. The sanctioning and appropriation of funding for the Ramses mission will hopefully take place at ESA’s Ministerial Council meeting (involving representatives from each of ESA’s member states) in November of 2025. To arrive at Apophis in February 2029, launch would have to take place in April 2028, the agency says.
This is a big deal because large asteroids don’t come this close to Earth very often. It is thus scientifically precious that, on April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass within 19,794 miles (31,860 kilometers) of Earth. For comparison, geosynchronous orbit is 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above Earth’s surface. Such close fly-bys by asteroids hundreds of meters across (Apophis is about 1,230 feet, or 375 meters, across) only occur on average once every 5,000 to 10,000 years. Miss this one, and we’ve got a long time to wait for the next.
When Apophis was discovered in 2004, it was for a short time the most dangerous asteroid known, being classified as having the potential to impact with Earth possibly in 2029, 2036, or 2068. Should an asteroid of its size strike Earth, it could gouge out a crater several kilometers across and devastate a country with shock waves, flash heating and earth tremors. If it crashed down in the ocean, it could send a towering tsunami to devastate coastlines in multiple countries.
Over time, as our knowledge of Apophis’ orbit became more refined, however, the risk of impact greatly went down. Radar observations of the asteroid in March of 2021 reduced the uncertainty in Apophis’ orbit from hundreds of kilometers to just a few kilometers, finally removing any lingering worries about an impact — at least for the next 100 years. (Beyond 100 years, asteroid orbits can become too unpredictable to plot with any accuracy, but there’s currently no suggestion that an impact will occur after 100 years.) So, Earth is expected to be perfectly safe in 2029 when Apophis comes through. Still, scientists want to see how Apophis responds by coming so close to Earth and entering our planet’s gravitational field.
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“There is still so much we have yet to learn about asteroids but, until now, we have had to travel deep into the solar system to study them and perform experiments ourselves to interact with their surface,” said Patrick Michel, who is the Director of Research at CNRS at Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, in a statement. “Nature is bringing one to us and conducting the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and squeezed by strong tidal forces that may trigger landslides and other disturbances and reveal new material from beneath the surface.”
The Goldstone radar’s imagery of asteroid 99942 Apophis as it made its closest approach to Earth, in March 2021. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/NSF/AUI/GBO)
By arriving at Apophis before the asteroid’s close encounter with Earth, and sticking with it throughout the flyby and beyond, Ramses will be in prime position to conduct before-and-after surveys to see how Apophis reacts to Earth. By looking for disturbances Earth’s gravitational tidal forces trigger on the asteroid’s surface, Ramses will be able to learn about Apophis’ internal structure, density, porosity and composition, all of which are characteristics that we would need to first understand before considering how best to deflect a similar asteroid were one ever found to be on a collision course with our world.
Besides assisting in protecting Earth, learning about Apophis will give scientists further insights into how similar asteroids formed in the early solar system, and, in the process, how planets (including Earth) formed out of the same material.
One way we already know Earth will affect Apophis is by changing its orbit. Currently, Apophis is categorized as an Aten-type asteroid, which is what we call the class of near-Earth objects that have a shorter orbit around the sun than Earth does. Apophis currently gets as far as 0.92 astronomical units (137.6 million km, or 85.5 million miles) from the sun. However, our planet will give Apophis a gravitational nudge that will enlarge its orbit to 1.1 astronomical units (164.6 million km, or 102 million miles), such that its orbital period becomes longer than Earth’s.
It will then be classed as an Apollo-type asteroid.
Ramses won’t be alone in tracking Apophis. NASA has repurposed their OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned a sample from another near-Earth asteroid, 101955 Bennu, in 2023. However, the spacecraft, renamed OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer), won’t arrive at the asteroid until April 23, 2029, ten days after the close encounter with Earth. OSIRIS-APEX will initially perform a flyby of Apophis at a distance of about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the object, then return in June that year to settle into orbit around Apophis for an 18-month mission.
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Furthermore, the European Space Agency still plans on launching its Hera spacecraft in October 2024 to follow-up on the DART mission to the double asteroid Didymos and Dimorphos. DART impacted the latter in a test of kinetic impactor capabilities for potentially changing a hazardous asteroid’s orbit around our planet. Hera will survey the binary asteroid system and observe the crater made by DART’s sacrifice to gain a better understanding of Dimorphos’ structure and composition post-impact, so that we can place the results in context.
The more near-Earth asteroids like Dimorphos and Apophis that we study, the greater that context becomes. Perhaps, one day, the understanding that we have gained from these missions will indeed save our planet.
