Musk rubbishes reports of planning a Mars colony or seeding it with his own sperm

Elon Musk plans to colonise Mars one day. There have been reports that the SpaceX founderhas plans to build a Martian city and his employees are working 100 hours a week to make that city a reality.Now a New York Times report suggests that Musk is even volunteering his own sperm to seed the colony. Considering all the reports about how eager Musk is to send humans to our neighbouring planet, one might instantly believe it. However, Musk himself has denied making any such statement.

An X user posted a screenshot of an NYT piece which described Musk's plans of having one million people on Mars within 20 years and that he is ready to give his own sperm. The SpaceX CEO replied that he has no such plans. He wrote, "I have not fwiw ‘volunteered my sperm.'"

He has reportedly told SpaceX employees that one million people will be living in a Martian city in the next 20 years.

In May, he posted on X that it would take less than 10 years to send people to Mars. Meanwhile, NASA says that the first humans might not land on the planet before the 2040s.

Notably, rovers like Perseverance and Curiosity are on the red planet, carrying out research for humans to understand its past. There have been other rovers that are no longer active, such as Sojourner, Spirit and Zhurong.

Does Musk have secret plans for Mars?

Several reports have suggested that Musk is secretly working on a project to create habitats, spacesuits and more for Mars. Reportedly, his employees have been working more than 100 hours a week on the plans.

However, Musk on Thursday posted: “No one at SpaceX has been directed to work on a Mars city. When people have asked to do so, I’ve said we need to focus on getting there first.”

A unique human species

Musk has in the past talked about engineering a unique species to live on Mars. “I think it’s quite likely that we’d want to bioengineer new organisms that are better suited to living on Mars,” he said in an interview with Raw Science in 2013.

Muskhas reportedly talked about the idea of selective breeding with SpaceX employees and research has started on gene editing to find radiation-resistant traits in humans that might prove crucial to their survival on Mars.