ELON Musk has big plans to put a human colony on Mars and has said he’d like to send one million people to the Red Planet by 2050.
A Nasa scientist exclusively told The U.S. Sun that this would essentially be a suicide mission and Elon Musk would likely die before he got there due to a painful condition.
The U.S. SunNasa’s Dr. Michelle Thaller warned of the risks of space radiation on the journey to Mars[/caption]
Getty52-year-old Elon Musk has big plans to get to the Red Planet[/caption]
Dr. Michelle Thaller works as a scientist at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center and has decades of experience.
The expert explained that we don’t currently have the right technology to keep humans safe on a journey to Mars.
They’d face issues with space radiation that could kill them before they had a chance to get there.
Radiation sickness, also called radiation poisoning, can increase risks of cancer, degenerative diseases, and death.
Dr. Thaller told us: “I know Elon Musk has said he’d like to be the first person to die on another planet.
“It’s possible he wouldn’t make it that far because of the radiation in space between here and Mars.
“If the Sun has a big solar flare or a big ejection of material that happens quite commonly, that would kill him.”
The same deadly issue is something that Nasa’s Apollo astronauts managed to avoid when they stood on the Moon.
Dr. Thaller continued: “One of the things about Apollo, is that we knew we had got lucky with the astronauts on the Moon.
“There actually was a big storm between two of the Apollo missions that, had astronauts been on the Moon, they would likely have died.”
Musk has previously acknowledged the dangers of a journey to Mars.
He has admitted himself that the first people living on Mars will find it tough.
On an episode of the Full Send podcast, the SpaceX CEO predicted the quality of life for the first people who arrived on the planet.
“It’s going to be like dangerous like you might die,” he warned. “But over time you can make it awesome.”
Despite her concerns, Dr. Thaller would still like to see humans on the Red Planet one day.
She told us: “I would love to see humans on Mars.”
Nasa astronaut Stan Love previously told The U.S. Sun how he thinks a human colony on Mars will be possible one day.
He said: “Do I think it’s possible? Yes. Do I think it would be enjoyable? No. I think it would be horrible.”
When asked whether he thought 2050 was a realistic goal for the first human colony on Mars, Love simply replied: “No.”