Elon Musk, the greatest advocate of making Mars the next civilisation has some news for you; a lot of people will die before that monumental goal is achieved.

Musk made the comments during an interview with XPrize founder Peter Diamandis last week, adding that the journey won’t be the easiest. “It’s uncomfortable. It’s a long journey, You might not come back alive.”

The SpaceX CEO whose mandate is to be able to shuttle people from earth to mars said “a bunch of people probably will die” in the process.

But the good news is, no one will be forced to go to Mars, and Musk asserted that the explorers of the planet will be “volunteers only.”

To this end, Musk said that assembling the crews for the first Mars missions will be “like that ad for Shackleton going to the Antarctic,”. The ad that he refers to is that which British explorer Ernest Shackleton supposedly placed in a newspaper at the turn of the 19th Century when he sought to assemble a crew for the first-ever excursion to the Antarctic.

“Men wanted for hazardous jouney, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success,” the purported advertisement, to which Shackleton is said to have received more than 5,000 replies, read.