Bezos wants humans to colonise the solar system, while Musk has his sight set on Mars

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, hopes for a distant future when "a trillion" humans will colonise the solar system.

In the Lex Fridman podcast, published on Thursday, Bezos said that our solar system has enough resources to support a civilisation that large. But people won't be inhabiting other planets. Instead, they would be living in massive space stations.

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By a trillion humans, Bezos meant that "a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins" could be up in space at any given point.

Bezos envisioned space stations that resembled the cylindrical habitats proposed by the late physicist Gerard K. O'Neill. "They have a lot of advantages over planetary surfaces. You can spin them to get normal earth gravity. You can put them where you want them," he said of O'Neill-style colonies, adding that most people will want to live near Earth anyway.

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Bezos' space colony agenda differs from that of Elon Musk, his main competitor. The SpaceX founder, Musk,has been vocal about his ambition to colonise Mars by 2050. SpaceX also has plans to help NASA send humans to the moon, but its colonisation goals are more aligned towards Mars.

Meanwhile, Bezos has set his eyes on the moon, revealing the giant Blue Moon lunar lander concept in 2019. He also spoke about an O'Neill-style shaped cylinder that can maintain a good climate throughout the year.

"As a species, we've got to do this. We're going to crucify this planet sooner or later. So you might as well die going to Mars," Kevin Moffat, an associate professor at the University of Warwick who specialises in human physiology, told Business Insider.

Previously, experts have talked about the scientific and ethical dilemmas related to the glorious plans of space colonisation of both billionaires. They have warned about the problems related to gravity and space's human immune system. However, that does not mean that their efforts went in vain.

During the podcast, Bezos told Fridman that humans could choose to go back and forth between space stations and Earth in the distant future. According to Bezos, space colonisation ultimately means to preserve the planet. "We've sent robotic probes to all the planets," he said. "We know that this is the good one."

(With inputs from agencies)