Amazon's Jeff Bezos asks Elon Musk to live on Everest for a year

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has taken a jibe at his rival SpaceX founder Elon Musk. During a recent talk, Bezos expanded his vision on settling in space. While speaking on the topic, he also critiqued Musk's most ambitious project of colonizing Mars.

"We have sent robotic probes now to every planet in this solar system, and this is the best one," Bezos said of Earth. "My friends, who want to move to Mars? I say, 'Do me a favor, go live on the top of Mount Everest for a year first, and see if you like it.' Because it's a garden paradise compared to Mars."

Bezos made these remarks during a private lecture which was held at Space News. The conversation mainly focused on the future roadmap of his rocket manufacturing firm, Blue Origin, and his aim to make space a place where people can live and make a living.

"The solar system can support a trillion humans," Bezos said. "Then we'd have 1,000 Mozarts and 1,000 Einsteins. Think how incredible and dynamic that civilization will be."

As for the Mars-Everest comparison, Bezos said:

"I already talked a little bit about unleashing entrepreneurialism in space, and that is really critical. If you look even further beyond that, or ask a big question, 'Why do we need to go to space? Why do humans need to go to space? What's that all about?' I think that is a very useful question to ponder.

"My answer is a little different from the answer that I think you hear sometimes more commonly. One thing I find very un-motivating is the kind of 'Plan B' argument, where the Earth gets destroyed, where you want to be somewhere else."