There was chuckling – maybe a little too much – about the prospect of people dying during efforts to reach Mars, but SpaceX founder Elon Musk was perhaps just being authentic.

“You might die, it’s going to be uncomfortable and probably won’t have good food,” Musk told Peter Diamandis, the founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation for scientific discovery.

There aren’t many people in Musk’s tax bracket, but the warning could be interpreted as being targeted toward the rich, since he said his planned Mars mission was being seen as “some escape hatch for rich people.”

The targeted initiative to reach Mars, Musk said, should come with a disclaimer along the lines of an “arduous and dangerous journey where you may not come back alive,” he said with a chuckle.

“Honestly, a bunch of people will probably die in the beginning” he said, but it will also be “a glorious adventure and it will be an amazing experience.”

Musk said in December that his company will have humans on Mars by 2026.

In 2015, Musk talked about beginning building a city on Mars after a successful rocket landing by SpaceX. 

In June 2017, he published a paper that expanded on that idea and included plans for having as many as 1 million people on Mars.

For now, he is addressing the process for humans to make it to Mars.

It’s “not for everyone,” he said, adding with another chuckle, “Volunteers only!” 

Caution is certainly something to be exercised.

SpaceX already has launched 113 Falcon rockets with 73 successful landings, according to the company’s website – and the company says that Falcon 9 rockets are designed to safely transport people and payloads into earth orbit and beyond — but some of the rockets failed to land safely and, in some cases, exploded.

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