Tesla and SpaceX founder and executive Elon Musk, right, is interviewed by Chris Anderson on stage at the TED2017 conference in Vancouver on Friday.Bret Hartman
Elon Musk does not want to imagine a future where humans don't reach beyond our planet.
The founder of Tesla Inc. is doing what he can to make that a reality, using his company SpaceX to develop technology to take people into space, and eventually to the surface of Mars.
"It's important to have something that makes you want to get up in the morning and want to live," Mr. Musk said during the final day of the TED Conference in Vancouver.
"And if the future does not include being out there in the stars and being a multiplanet species, I find that incredibly depressing."
Mr. Musk founded SpaceX 15 years ago and has been a pioneer in private space travel. SpaceX became the first private company to launch a spacecraft into orbit and safely return it to Earth in 2010, and the first commercial enterprise to fly to the space station in 2012 on a supply mission.
He also wants to fly paying customers to the moon by next year, and eventually establish a human settlement on Mars.
And while he becomes philosophical talking about the future of space travel, Mr. Musk also argues there will be practical benefits from the technological advances produced in the race to Mars.
During a question-and-answer session on the TED stage, conference founder Chris Anderson asked a simple question about Mr. Musk's plans to create a 40-storey rocket to travel to Mars: "Why?"
Why not just focus on the sustainable energy solutions that have immediate use here on Earth, Mr. Anderson asked.
"Why not just do that? There are so many desperate things happening on the planet now. This feels like a distraction. You should be thinking about what's here and now," he added.
Mr. Musk said it's about ensuring we continue to progress. He pointed to the technologies of ancient civilizations that have since been lost, and he noted that even space travel took a step backward once humans made it to the moon.
"If you look at the progress in space, in 1969 we were able to send somebody to the moon. Then we had the space shuttle, which could only take people to low-Earth orbit. Now we can take no one to orbit," he said.
"We're mistaken when we think technology automatically improves. It only improves if a lot of people work very hard to make it better."
As for his own place in that progress, Mr. Musk said he doesn't see himself as a messiah.
"I want to be clear: I'm not trying to be anyone's saviour. I'm just trying to think about the future and not be sad."
The interview highlighted other endeavours for Mr. Musk and his companies. In a twist of irony, Mr. Musk is looking to introduce a solution to a problem that he is helping create. Automated cars such as the ones Tesla is developing, he said, will inevitably make congestion worse.
His solution is to have self-driving cars propelled on a rail system beneath the Earth at 200 kilometres an hour.
"We're trying to dig a hole under L.A., and this is to create the beginning of what will be a 3-D network of tunnels to alleviate congestion," Mr. Musk said.
The TED conference brings together a range of speakers to discuss big ideas. The event has been held in Vancouver for several years and has spawned smaller locally organized TED events around the world. Other speakers during the past week included Pope Francis, tennis star Serena Williams as well as former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, who made an unexpected appearance during a session about climate change.