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.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
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.
