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Unlike fellow billionaire Elon Musk, Bill Gates does not think that going to Mars is so important.
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Gates said he didn’t “think rockets are the solution” in Kara Swisher’s “Sway” podcast.
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He prefers to dedicate funds to deal with climate and public health crises on Earth.
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Tech tycoons Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos poured billions into private space travel – with high goals of establishing agitated colonies outside the Earth’s atmosphere – but Bill Gates is more concerned with problems closer to home.
The Microsoft co-founder explained why he was not involved in the Bezos and Musk space race during an appearance on Kara Swisher’s “Sway” podcast on Monday.
“No, I am not a person from Mars. I know many people from Mars,” he said. “I don’t think rockets are the solution. But maybe something is missing there.”
Gates, who appeared on the podcast to promote his new book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster”, said he is interested in using his wealth and foundations to directly address some of humanity’s greatest challenges. He told Swisher that he is also not very interested in buying a ticket for space.
“I’m not going to pay a lot of money because my foundation can buy measles vaccines and save a life for $ 1,000,” said Gates. “Everything I do, I always think, ‘OK, I could spend that $ 1,000 buying measles vaccine.'”
When it comes to tackling climate change and reducing emissions in the long run, Gates said, people should pay more attention to industries that are difficult to green, like steel, meat and cement. But companies like Tesla have made great strides in “easy things, like passenger cars,” he acknowledged.
“It is important to say that what Elon did with Tesla is one of the biggest contributions to climate change that anyone has ever done,” said Gates. “Underestimating Elon is not a good idea.”
Musk’s interplanetary ambitions revolve around the use of rockets built by SpaceX, the space exploration company he founded in 2002, to transport 1 million people to Mars by 2050. Musk said he plans to establish a self-sustaining city on the Red Planet for that humanity can survive a future apocalypse on Earth.
Meanwhile, the outgoing founder and CEO of Amazon wants his company, Blue Origin, to facilitate a moon base along with space colonies that can house up to 1 trillion people. Both SpaceX and Blue Origin are working to develop reusable rockets that would dramatically reduce the cost of a space trip.
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