Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of SpaceX, revealed what type of government would most likely be established by the future human colonizers of Mars. The tech mogul also described what life on Mars would be like. SpaceX is planning on providing commercial spaceflights to the Red Planet through its Starship spacecraft. For Musk, his company's fully reusable spacecraft project can help pave the way for Mars' colonization.
During a previous appearance at Stanford University, Musk lectured audience members on what he thinks will happen once humans start living on Mars. Similar to societies on Earth, Musk believes that a government body will also be established on the Red Planet.
According to Musk, Mars colonists will probably establish a democratic government. He noted that the Martian government will most likely be a direct democracy, which involves voting for policies. This is very different from representative democracy, wherein voters choose politicians who will then vote on policy initiatives.
"From a government standpoint, the government of Mars will be up to the Martians," Musk explained during his lecture. "But I think we would probably have a direct democracy, rather than a representative democracy."
Aside from the form of government, Musk also described what life would be like during the initial stages of the colonization. At first, Musk said that humans will most likely live in special facilities in order to avoid the harsh environmental and atmospheric conditions of Mars.
Eventually, the SpaceX founder believes that the Red Planet will be successfully terraformed, which would allow human colonists to live in a manner that's very similar to being on Earth.
"In the beginning, people would live in glass domes, but over time we would terraform Mars and make it like Earth," Musk said. "I think there will be a lot of super-exciting things that are hard to predict, just like when they were building the Pacific."
Although Musk is already envisioning how people will thrive on Mars, he is still aware that the voyage to the Red Planet is currently the biggest hurdle that humans will face. Despite this, he is confident that SpaceX will succeed in providing cargo and human spaceflights to Mars.
"The first challenge is just getting there, that's what SpaceX is working super hard on," Musk said. "We're figuring out how to get a large number of people and cargo to Mars."
