Side blow against Musk?

Obama: Better to protect Earth than colonize Mars

Former US President Barack Obama has called for more to be done to protect the Earth rather than colonizing the planet Mars. At a conference on renewable energies in Paris on Wednesday, Obama spoke about major Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who would build spaceships that could take people to Mars.

"But when I hear some of them talking about plans to colonize Mars because conditions on Earth could deteriorate to the point where it becomes uninhabitable, I look at them like: 'What are you talking about?" said Obama. "Even after a nuclear war, Earth would be more habitable than Mars. Even if we did nothing about climate change, there would be oxygen - unlike on Mars, as far as we know."

Obama: "We were made for this place"
"We should invest in taking care of this planet here," said the former president. Space exploration should be more about gaining new knowledge and making discoveries than looking for new habitats for humans. "We were created for this place, and we should preserve this place so that it remains habitable," Obama said.

With his remarks, the former president may have been aiming in particular at high-tech billionaire Elon Musk, the head of electric car manufacturer Tesla and space travel company SpaceX. According to Musk's vision, SpaceX rockets will take people to Mars in the future.