Off The Record

Elon Musk Talks About Why Humans Require A “Second Planet” And Claims It Is “Just A Matter Of Time”

Published on March 9, 2025

Elon Musk asserts that humanity requires a “second planet,” emphasizing that this is a critical issue.

Musk has been quite transparent about his intentions to someday populate Mars for as long as he has been a public figure.

A whole planet of free radioactive real estate sounds fantastic, but we have so many issues here on Earth that it might be worthwhile to try to solve them before we go into space.

However, Musk implied in a recent interview on The Joe Rogan Experience that these factors are the reason we want to think about dismounting and establishing a new environment where people may flourish.

Speaking on the podcast, Musk – who previously said he wanted to die on the Red Planet – explained: “My view is that we should move to Mars, well not move to Mars, we should have a second planet to preserve civilization.”

“Let’s say hypothetically, [a civilization ending event] will probably happen to Earth at some point.”

“It is a matter of time before we get hit by an asteroid or maybe we annihilate ourselves with nuclear war, or super volcanos.”

Rogan concurred, adding that it’s “not a bad idea” to just “hedge your bets” when it comes to traveling abroad because there are a number of apocalypse situations that may happen to our world.

In recent years, there has been some justification for this dread of humanity’s demise.

This is evident when you consider that countries possessing nuclear weapons are always at risk of nuclear war. In addition, the pandemic is still fresh in people’s minds and demonstrated how a swiftly spreading sickness can drastically alter everyday life.

More specifically, NASA has been providing updates on a “city-destroying” asteroid that might impact within seven years, which has caused asteroid worries to soar in recent years.

Astronomers have been monitoring 2024 YR4 since it was first observed in December 2024, when it triggered automatic asteroid warning systems.

The space object, which NASA estimates is between 130 and 300 feet (40 and 90 meters) big, would strike Earth with a force hundreds of times greater than that of the Hiroshima bomb.

Most alarmingly, the original estimate of the likelihood of the space rock hitting Earth was only 1.2 percent; however, further upgrades have raised this figure to 3.2 percent.

But during the coming years, let’s hope that the percentage of strikes begins to decline again.