Back in the prehistoric era (2016), a small group of Times reporters and editors, including myself, met with Elon Musk at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne.
Musk mostly talked about his idea of transporting humanity to Mars as an escape route from our global-warming-beleaguered home planet. This was his big hobby horse at that time. He was low-key and ruminative, almost convincing.
It was plain that he had thought a lot, and caringly, about the issue. He handed out coffee mugs inscribed "Occupy Mars." People took him seriously.
