Blue Origin's Founder Mocks Elon Musk For Ambition To Go To Mars

During a recent private discussion about Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos had a few words to Elon Musk. He said that if Musk wants to live on Mars, he’d better first make sure he’s competent for the task.

Bezos and Musk both dream of bringing humans to Mars, but with different concerns. While Musk sees that as a guarantee for human survival, Bezos has his eyes on the development of mankind. He said that our solar system is large enough for a trillion people, meaning there will be 1,000 Mozarts along with 1,000 Einsteins.

Jeff Bezos

The point is that SpaceX’s founder also wants to be one of the first to arrive on Mars. That comment has ticked off the founder of Blue Origin, who thinks that Musk is just bragging without thorough considerations.

Bezos didn’t specifically mention any names, but apparently, he was implying Elon Musk. Bezos added:

Elon Musk

Bezos’ critical comment including Everest has a point. So far, it’s publicly known that Mush hasn’t undergone any specific training for Mars. Even if he does some training before the space flight, he is still inexperienced of such trips with severe conditions like isolation for a long time, consuming only recycled water and dried rations, and having a suit on all the time, not to mention physical factors.

Since the atmosphere on Mars is 1 percent as dense as that on Earth, colonizers will have to wear a spacesuit whenever they go outside. At the Mount Everest’s top, the air pressure is around 33 percent the pressure at sea level, which means, while you don’t need a special suit, you do need oxygen tanks to aid your breathing. Furthermore, the temperature at the top of the Everest mountain ranges from -36 to -60 degree C, but on Mars, that ranges from -70 to -125 degrees at the poles, the phrase “extreme cold” is probably not enough to describe that.

Mount Everest's conditions are extreme but are still nothing compared to Mars

In addition to that, Mars doesn’t have a shield from the Sun radiation like the Earth’s ozone layer, so a colonizer would absorb around five times the amount of safe radiation of an employee at nuclear power plants.

All in all, perhaps Elon Musk should listen to Jeff Bezos.