Elon Musk is a man with a plan – in both life and death.

The Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder only turns 53 later this year, but he’s not taking any chances when it comes to croaking it and has shared his intentions for where he’d like to meet his maker.

Of course, he doesn’t want to be outdone, even in death.

That’s why he’s picked a place where no human has ever passed away before as the desired location for when he shuffles off this mortal coil. Any guesses? Take a look at this:

Don’t get me wrong, Musk isn’t planning on going anywhere anytime soon – but he’s decided that when the day finally comes, he wants to be somewhere far, far away from any of us lot.

During a talk with the UAE Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Mohammad Al Gergawi, at the World Government Summit (WGS) in 2017, the tech tycoon discussed his longtime obsession with getting humans on Mars.

His company SpaceX is in the midst of developing a mode of transport for space travel, known as Starship, which would supposedly be capable of carrying up to 100 people and taking them up to the Red Planet.

Musk has already given us a glimpse of what the expedition would look like with simulation videos and intends for Starship to be a partially reusable aircraft that looks and feels like a commercial airline with short turnaround times.

He reckons Mars is one of ‘Earth‘s closest habitable neighbours’ that is there for the taking and promised that although the journey may be ‘dangerous, uncomfortable and long‘, it would be a ‘glorious adventure and an amazing experience’.

Musk is absolutely enthralled by the prospect of taking people to Mars and has previously discussed his plans for the place if the mission is indeed possible – which he insists it is, having pinned 2029 as the year it will happen.

The billionaire previously joked with podcaster Lex Fridman that he’d like the title ’emperor or god emperor’ if he ruled the roost up there, before saying it would be a great opportunity to build a better government.

He envisions ‘somewhat of a direct democracy’, where people vote directly on issues instead of going to a representative government and would recommend ‘keeping laws short’.

Musk laughed: “Long laws, it’s like…there’s something suspicious is going on if it’s a long law. If the size of the law exceeds the word count of Lord of the Rings, then it’s like – something’s wrong.”

Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images

You might have gathered by now that his fixation with the Red Planet has something to do with where he wants to joss it.

At the WGS in 2017, Al Gergawi asked Musk why his Mars-mania also translated into his desired place of death.

The SpaceX boss responded: “To be clear I don’t want to die on Mars.

“I mean, we’re all going to die someday. And if you’re going to pick some place to die, then why not Mars? If we’re born on Earth, why not die on Mars? Seems like maybe it would be quite exciting.

“I think given the choice of dying on Earth or dying on Mars, I’d say, ‘Yeah sure, I’ll die on Mars’. But it’s not some kind of Mars death wish. And if I do die on Mars, I just don’t want it to be on impact.”

I bet the other 99 people he takes with him are hoping the same thing.

A vital change was made to Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket after a YouTuber asked a question on one of his videos.

Everyday Astronaut, who has 1.25 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, was invited to SpaceX‘s ‘Starbase’ facility back in 2021.

After being invited back more than six months later, it was revealed by SpaceX chief Elon Musk that a question the YouTuber asked actually led to changes being made on one of the newest rockets.

One of the biggest improvements from Everyday Astronaut’s query is that the rocket now uses excess gas from the Starship’s main engines for manoeuvring thrusters, instead of separate cold gas thrusters.

This occurred during the original meeting between the pair, which took place in August 2021 when they discussed the nature of the new Starship SpaceX rocket.

The world’s richest man stated that ‘you don’t even need a cold gas thruster system…you already have hot gas’.

Everyday Astronaut, otherwise known as Tim, then interjected by saying: “But this is only for the booster, right?”

Musk then admitted on camera: “Although, arguably, now you mentioned it, it might be wise to do this for the (space)ship too.”

YouTube/Everyday Astronaut

Musk, 50, reassured his guest that he was right and the ship, as well as the thrusters, also don’t need a cold gas thruster system.

“We’re gonna fix that,” Elon then told the YouTuber.

Tim’s tour of SpaceX’s Starbase, which was uploaded to his YouTube channel, let viewers see Musk admit that he made changes following the pair’s previous discussion.

He calls said changes ‘one of the biggest improvements we [SpaceX] made’ to Starship.

“It occurred to me while I was explaining it to you,” Musk adds. “I was like, ‘wait, what are we doing?’.”

Musk and SpaceX, which he helped to found, have lofty ambitions for the new Starship rocket in question, with there being hopes of using it to send humans to the moon, and eventually even as far as Mars.

Musk also recently announced Neuralink, with the first patient having received the implant in January. Last week, they appeared to have made a full recovery and could move a mouse around a screen ‘just by thinking’.

Musk founded the neurotechnology company – alongside a team of seven scientists and engineers – which has been hailed as the future for humanity, and a lifeline for people with severe impairments.

Musk reckons people with obesity, autism, depression, and schizophrenia – as well as quadriplegics – could be the biggest beneficiaries of the device

Elon Musk has said he’s working on a ‘game plan’ to get a million people onto Mars.

The billionaire has long spoken of his ambitions to colonise the Red Planet and has previously said he thinks humans will land on there by 2029.

Initially, his company SpaceX wanted to see people land on Mars in 2024, but Musk pushed that expectation back in 2020, saying he was ‘highly confident’ the company could land there in ‘about six years from now’.

Although he’s also previously admitted it might not be survivable for the first folks who go.

Speaking in 2021, he said: “You might die, it’s going to be uncomfortable and probably won’t have good food.”

Reiterating just how dangerous it will likely be, he continued: “Honestly, a bunch of people will probably die in the beginning.”

Musk went on to say it will be an ‘arduous and dangerous journey where you may not come back alive’.

Sounds great, eh?

And although he’s been quiet on any plans to send humans off to Mars in recent months, Musk recently shared on X that he was still working on a ‘game plan’.

He said: “We are mapping out a game plan to get a million people to Mars.

“Civilisation only passes the single-planet Great Filter when Mars can survive even if Earth supply ships stop coming.”

The Great Filter, a term coined by economist Robin Hanson, is the idea that a species will end up facing a barrier to survival such as climate change or a nuclear war wiping us all out.

Getty Stock Image

Musk suggests that the only way people can avoid this on Mars is to ensure that people can survive there without the need to rely on people back on Earth for supplies.

Speaking at a virtual ‘Humans to Mars’ conference in 2020, he said: “Getting to Mars, I think, is not the fundamental issue. The fundamental issue is building a base, building a city on Mars that is self-sustaining.

“We’re going to build a propellant plant, an initial Mars base – Mars Base Alpha – and then get it to the point where it’s self-sustaining.

“I want to emphasise that this is a very hard and dangerous, difficult thing, not for the faint of heart. Good chance you’ll die, it’s going to be tough going, but it will be pretty glorious if it works out.”

I think I’ll stick around here on Earth, thanks.

Seen as though he’s been the pioneer of electric cars, ambitious space missions and brain chips, should we really be surprised that Elon Musk has come up with his own bullsh*t detector?

If you’re applying for a job at one of billionaire tech mogul’s companies, make sure you haven’t exaggerated any of your achievements on your CV or that you don’t start bending the truth in your interview, as he claims he can always tell.

Musk, 52, explained that he had thought up a way to help him determine the trustworthiness of potential employees during job interviews, which could also double as a way to vet someone on a first date.

Hey, I’m just being resourceful!

Anyway, the SpaceX founder reckons he can spot a Pinocchio a mile off when he asks candidates one certain question – so he makes sure that uses it on every single person he sits down with.

While speaking at the World Government Summit back in 2017, Musk started to discuss his plans for future manned missions to Mars when the conversation turned to how he would select his team for it.

After a brief pause, the uber-rich businessman revealed that he tended to go on ‘gut feeling’, but said he also relies on a key question which he would pose to astronauts – or anyone who wants to work for him, for that matter.

Musk explained: “My interview questions are always the same. I say, tell me the story of your life and the decisions you made along the way and why you made them.

“Also, tell me about some of the most difficult problems you’ve worked on and how you solved them.”

You may presume that candidates have the perfect answer for this question already rehearsed, but according to Musk, this is how he helps differentiate between time wasters and those who are actually taking the process seriously.

You can imagine the tech tycoon pulling a face like this when he catches a candidate in a lie (Craig T Fruchtman/Getty Images)

He explained that most people wouldn’t be able to get down to the nitty gritty of a subject if they were piggybacking off someone else’s story or inventing parts of it.

The father-of-11 continued: “The people that really solved the problem, know exactly what they how they solved it…they know the little details…the people that pretended to solve the problem can maybe go one level, and then they get stuck!”

He said he is really looking for ‘evidence of exceptional ability’ and proof that the person he is interviewing has the power to overcome difficult problems that may come their way.

Steve Jobs’ ‘beer test’ sounds like a walk in the park in comparison to a meeting with Musk.