The manned missions to the moon, beginning in 1969 with Apollo 11, were a pivotal and iconic point in the 20th century, establishing American dominance in the Cold War, showcasing the human capability, and for inspiring people across the world to reach for the stars. Now, manned missions to Mars may inspire a new generation in as few as six years.

Last week Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, outlined his incredibly ambitious vision of manned missions to Mars, potentially beginning as soon as 2022. In the plans Musk hopes to not only send humans to Mars but to eventually establish self-sustaining colonies, making the human race multi-planetary.

As Musk sees it now, there are “two fundamental paths” facing humanity today. “One is that we stay on Earth forever and then there will be an inevitable extinction event,” he said. The other path is going to Mars, becoming a “spacefaring civilization.”

Basically, if humanity continues to be ignorant of the real threat of climate change and global warming, life as we know it will cease to exist in the very near future. The environment cannot sustain the destructive ways of our societies and soon enough we will past the point of no return in which we essentially destroy our planet. One way to avoid an extinction event such as this, or one out of our control, would be to make our species less vulnerable by establishing colonies on Mars and potentially other planets or moons, etc.

For his plans, Musk estimated that the current cost to send one person to Mars would be upwards of $10 billion dollars but he is confident that travel will become significantly more affordable as science evolves, just as it did during the Apollo missions.

When asked about the costs and funding of these missions, Musk said that “the reason [he is] personally accruing assets is to fund [travel to and colonization of Mars]. [He said that he] really [has] no other purpose than to make life interplanetary.”

Musk is committed to these missions alongside other leading scientists like Bill Nye and organizations like NASA. In regard to Musk’s presentation of his plans, NASA said that “[they] applaud all those who want to take the next giant leap – and advance the journey to Mars. [They] are very pleased that the global community is working to meet the challenges of a sustainable human presence on Mars. This journey will require the best and the brightest minds from government and industry, and the fact that Mars is a major topic of discussion is very encouraging.”

This is no longer science-fiction: manned missions to Mars, colonization and exploration of the planet, and terraforming are seemingly inevitable. Personally, such knowledge is reassuring. In a time of endless political, social, racial, religious, and sexual turmoil and intolerance, solace can be found in the warming vision of the bests parts of humanity coming together to do something amazing. Going to Mars would open up a new world of wonder and perception for all who would bear witness. The universe and our trivial, insignificant everyday problems will shrink while humanity will grow in so, so many ways.