Elon Musk says he is probably going to go and live on Mars

Life on the red planet will be difficult and unpleasant, but SpaceX boss says he will do it anyway

Elon Musk is probably going to live on Mars.

That is, if he doesn't die first: something that is highly likely, given how risky the journey will be. And if he doesn't die on his way to the red planet, he could easily die once he get there.

If he and his fellow travellers do manage to get to Mars and survive, life will be a difficult prospect, he has said. It is going to be lots of work and very little leisure time, he said, with the high chance that you might die from Mars's harsh environment before you get to enjoy it.

Those were the predictions the SpaceX and Tesla boss made when asked in a new interview about his plans for living on the red planet. Mr Musk's rocket business is preparing for manned trips to Mars in the coming years, with the hope of making them relatively easily available.

"You're 47," Mr Musk was asked as part of an interview for Axios's new show on HBO. "What is the likelihood you personally will go to Mars?"

"70 per cent," he replied immediately. "We've recently made a number of breakthroughs that I'm just really fired up about."

He went on to explain that he was "talking about moving there", and that the price for the trip might eventually be only a couple of hundred thousand dollars.

Pressed on whether he was working towards building an "escape hatch for rich people", he said that the journey was going to be far more difficult than staying on our own planet would be.

"Your probability of dying on Mars if much higher than dying on Earth," he said, comparing it with Shackleton's trip to the Antarctic.

"It's going to be hard, there's a good chance of death, going in a little can through deep space," he said. "You might land successfully, once you land successfully you'll be working non-stop to build the base. So not much time for leisure.

"And once you get there, even after doing all this, it's a very harsh environment so there's a good chance you'll die there. We think you can come back but we're not sure. Now does that sound like an escape hatch for rich people?"

Despite all that he said he would "unhesitatingly" go and live on the planet, once SpaceX makes it possible.

"There's lots of people that climb mountains.," he said. "People die on Mount Everest all the time. They like doing it for the challenge."