Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, is on the forefront of trying to take mankind to Mars maybe even before NASA makes it there first. Consider it a space race amongst the United States government and the private sector.
But while Musk may seem like a good guy, there are moments that make us question the South African’s morality.
And that was on full display when Elon Musk hired an ex-convict private investigator to dig up dirt on a hero he called a pedophile last year.
Elon Musk really believes his company SpaceX will be the first company in the world to make humans an interplanetary species sometime in the 2020’s decade.
Musk plans on sending as many as 100 people – we’re not sure of the exact number, but his all-new ‘Starship’ seats that many – to Mars by 2024. Musk believes his ambitious plan is necessary for the survival of mankind. According to Musk it’s imperative we do everything in our power to preserve “consciousness,” which he fears could be unique to humans.
It all sounds like a fairy tale thinking we’ll be able to terraform Mars and move the human species a little bit at a time if something lethal occurs on Earth. Terraforming the planet could be one of the more minor problems with trying to make Mars habitable for humans.
Astrobiologist Samantha Rolfe from the University of Hertfordshire noted, “Deep space is not without its dangers, but at least working in low Earth orbit, on the moon and the International Space Station, the Earth’s magnetic field offers some protection from harmful space radiation. Mars doesn’t have its own magnetic field and its atmosphere provides little shelter from cosmic radiation. Astronauts would also be exposed to deep space radiation for the minimum six-month journey between planets.”
We’ll find out soon whether Musk’s plan is delusions of grandeur or reality in five years time.
But is Musk a moral guy who can be trusted with such a monumental task?
The billionaire entrepreneur made headlines last year when Musk called a British cave diver “pedo guy,” as he was trying to save a team of soccer players in Thailand. Musk was ruthless towards Vernon Unsworth for no particular reason whatsoever, calling the use of a mini submarine to save the trapped soccer team a “Stunt” and told him to “stick his submarine where it hurts.”
Musk lashing out was bizarre and a head-scratcher.
But apparently Musk didn’t stop with the insults. He hired a private investigator, James Howard-Higgins, to dig up dirt on Unsworth and it turns out the P.I. had a checkered past of his own.
According to BuzzFeed, “Public records and interviews reveal that the man Musk contracted, James Howard-Higgins, stole money from his business partners and was sentenced to three years in prison for fraud. Past associates of the man described the Englishman to BuzzFeed News as a ‘Walter Mitty character’ who repeatedly defrauded a company he cofounded despite disciplinary actions that were meant to keep him in check.”
Howard-Higgins, a 47-year-old man from Dorset in southwest England, served 18 months of his three-year sentence in October 2016 for stealing more than £426,000 (about $525,000) from his company, Orchid Maritime Security Ltd.
Ironically, Musk didn’t vet the private investigator he hired to vet a hero who saved children from imminent doom.
Musk is now facing a defamation lawsuit from Unsworth and rightfully so.