Elon Musk explained why he wants to turn humans into 'multi-planetary creatures' in an essay he penned for a magazine run by Chinese censors

• Elon Musk discussed his ambitions for humans to be "multi-planetary" in an article for a magazine.
• Mush said that his "greatest hope" is for humans to "create a self-sustaining city on Mars."

Elon Musk has discussed his ambitions for humans to become "multi-planetary creatures" in an essay he penned for China Cyberspace magazine.

The magazine is run by China's central internet censor, the Cyberspace Administration of China, a powerful agency that oversees data security for several large companies, as Bloomberg reported.

Human civilization will be able to go on when Earth is no longer habitable if "we can fly to a new home in a spaceship," Musk wrote, per a translation of the interview by Yang Liu, a journalist for Chinese state press agency, Xinhua

Musk added that the first step to achieving this was to lower the cost of space travel, which he said SpaceX was founded to do.

According to the translation, the billionaire said that he saw human civilization as a "faint little candle" or a "shimmering light in the void" that will need to become interplanetary to survive.

Musk added that his "greatest hope" is for humans to "create a self-sustaining city on Mars."

The Tesla and SpaceX founder has repeatedly spoken of his plans to colonize Mars. In the article, he said he's aiming for SpaceX to "build at least 1,000 Starships to send groups of pioneers" to the planet.

Representatives for Elon Musk did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment but a spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg that Musk had written the essay.

Per the translation, the essay refers to readers as "Chinese friends" and encouraged "like-minded Chinese partners" to join Musk in exploring his vision for the future of space exploration.

China is already one of Tesla's biggest manufacturing hubs, output from its Shanghai Gigafactory accounted for half of its total global production in 2021 and surged to a record high in June 2022.