Elon Musk is the driving force behind human colonisation of Mars. The billionaire CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX has spoken at length of his desire to conquer the red planet. Now he’s given an “ask-me-anything” session on Reddit and revealed a few ideas for how humans could actually live long-term on the planet. “Initially, glass panes with carbon fibre frames to build geodesic domes on the surface, plus a lot of miner/tunnelling droids,” he said in response to a question. “With the latter, you can build out a huge amount of pressurised space for industrial operations and leave the glass domes for green living space.” Last month, Musk outlined his vision of colonising Mars at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he received a warm welcome from the avid space buffs in the crowd. The billionaire entrepreneur envisions 1,000 passenger ships flying en masse to the red planet within the next century – Battlestar Galactica style. “I think Earth will be a good place for a long time, but the probable lifespan of human civilisation will be much greater if we’re a multi-planetary species,” he said at the time. In the Reddit session he expanded on the initial set up of a Mars-based civilisation. “Early missions will be heavily weighted towards cargo,” he said. “First crewed mission would have about a dozen people, as the goal will be to build out and troubleshoot the propellant plant and Mars Base Alpha power system.” Musk isn’t slowing down on the idea of getting to Mars either, he said SpaceX may release mockups of these Mars domes in the next couple of years. And the private space company has already tested the engines that it hopes will one day send us there. Nine of the engines will be used to power SpaceX’s “Mars Colonial Transporter” – the rocket that Musk hopes will eventually transport humans to Mars.