Elon Musk:

Going from PayPal, I thought, well, what are some of the- the other problems that are likely to most affect the future of humanity? It really wasn't from the perspective of "What's the rank-ordered best way to make money?" Which is okay, but, it was really "What I think is going to most affect the future of humanity."

The biggest terrestrial problem we've got is sustainable energy- both the production and consumption of energy in a sustainable manner. If we don't solve that this century, we're in deep trouble. And then, the other one being the extension of life beyond Earth, to make life multi-planetary.

The latter is the basis for SpaceX, and the former is the basis for Tesla and SolarCity. When I started SpaceX, initially, I thought that, there's no way one could possibly start a rocket company. I wasn't that crazy.

But then I thought, well, what is a way to increase NASA's budget? That was actually my initial goal. If we could do a low-cost mission to Mars, something called Mars Oasis, which would land with seeds in dehydrated nutrient gel, and you hydrate them upon landing. And then you'd have this great sort of money shot of green plants on a red background.

Elon Musk:

Going from PayPal, I thought, well, what are some of the- the other problems that are likely to most affect the future of humanity? It really wasn't from the perspective of "What's the rank-ordered best way to make money?" Which is okay, but, it was really "What I think is going to most affect the future of humanity."

The biggest terrestrial problem we've got is sustainable energy- both the production and consumption of energy in a sustainable manner. If we don't solve that this century, we're in deep trouble. And then, the other one being the extension of life beyond Earth, to make life multi-planetary.

The latter is the basis for SpaceX, and the former is the basis for Tesla and SolarCity. When I started SpaceX, initially, I thought that, there's no way one could possibly start a rocket company. I wasn't that crazy.

But then I thought, well, what is a way to increase NASA's budget? That was actually my initial goal. If we could do a low-cost mission to Mars, something called Mars Oasis, which would land with seeds in dehydrated nutrient gel, and you hydrate them upon landing. And then you'd have this great sort of money shot of green plants on a red background.