SpaceX’s compensation plan for Musk is partially tied to creating a permanent human colony on Mars, America’s favorite planet
The conditions of SpaceX’s pay package for founder Elon Musk were revealed in a confidential registration statement, which was reviewed by Reuters last week.
While the compensation plan, approved by the SpaceX board in January, includes a sky-high valuation target of $7.5 trillion, it turns out Musk will only be awarded 200 million in super-voting restricted shares if he also establishes a permanent human colony on Mars with more than a million people, according to excerpts from the statement.
Luckily, there might be some volunteers to become cosmic X-patriates, since Mars just so happens to be Americans’ celestial body of choice. According to a new YouGov survey, published Tuesday, Mars is Americans’ favorite planet (19%), followed by ring-laden Saturn (14%) and 143,000 kilometer-wide Jupiter (8%).
Respondents were less enthused by Mercury and almost-planet Pluto, with roughly 1 in 5 respondents calling one of these their least favorite planet — though a majority of US adults (55%) simply didn’t know what their least favorite planet was, like the 38% who couldn’t say what their top choice was.
Whether Mars is America's favorite because of manifold endeavors to colonize it, or whether its proximity to Earth, relatively livable climate (Mercury’s temperatures, for example, are a little more mercurial, hitting 800°F in the day then dropping to -290°F at night), and grip on pop culture, from Ziggy Stardust to chocolate bars, have given us a rosier view of the Red Planet, is unclear.
Ahead of the company’s highly-anticipated IPO, it had appeared that SpaceX’s priorities were shifting away from Mars, further towards the Earth’s Moon. But if the world’s richest man wants to ensure even more company shares come June, SpaceX’s path to Mars shouldn’t be eclipsed.
Luckily, there might be some volunteers to become cosmic X-patriates, since Mars just so happens to be Americans’ celestial body of choice. According to a new YouGov survey, published Tuesday, Mars is Americans’ favorite planet (19%), followed by ring-laden Saturn (14%) and 143,000 kilometer-wide Jupiter (8%).
Respondents were less enthused by Mercury and almost-planet Pluto, with roughly 1 in 5 respondents calling one of these their least favorite planet — though a majority of US adults (55%) simply didn’t know what their least favorite planet was, like the 38% who couldn’t say what their top choice was.
Whether Mars is America's favorite because of manifold endeavors to colonize it, or whether its proximity to Earth, relatively livable climate (Mercury’s temperatures, for example, are a little more mercurial, hitting 800°F in the day then dropping to -290°F at night), and grip on pop culture, from Ziggy Stardust to chocolate bars, have given us a rosier view of the Red Planet, is unclear.
Ahead of the company’s highly-anticipated IPO, it had appeared that SpaceX’s priorities were shifting away from Mars, further towards the Earth’s Moon. But if the world’s richest man wants to ensure even more company shares come June, SpaceX’s path to Mars shouldn’t be eclipsed.
