A billboard outside of SpaceX headquarters targeted Elon Musk's plans for planet colonization on Earth Day: 'Mars sucks'

• A billboard appeared outside of SpaceX's headquarters that read "Mars sucks," signed by "Earth."
• The billboard was set up on Earth Day by LA-based creative agency Activista.
• Elon Musk's plan to colonize Mars have led experts to debate whether resources could be better spent on Earth.

A billboard outside of SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California criticized Elon Musk's mission to colonize Mars.

The billboard was set up by creative Los Angeles agency Activista for Earth Day and was live for 30 hours, the agency told Insider. The company's Twitter account took off on Thursday, targeting SpaceX for its plans to make Mars inhabitable for humans.

"What doesn't suck? #earth," the company tweeted on Thursday. "But the way we treat it frankly, sucks."

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-Activista (@ActivistaLA) April 21, 2021

Activista also bought the site marssucks.com, which breaks down how Mars would be a less than ideal place to live from -117 degree temperatures to dust storms.

The statement against SpaceX has caught people's attention on social media, and references a topic that has been debated in recent years: whether or not the time and resources spent pursuing Mars colonization could be better spent focused on solving issues here on Earth. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is more interested in colonizing the moon with his space company, Blue Origin, but has said that Earth is "by far the best" option for humans. Experts have weighed in both for and against Mars colonization.

Musk does plan to make Mars inhabitable, but his end goal is not to abandon earth, but rather ensure an alternative exists as a backup. His other company, Tesla, is more Earth-focused than SpaceX, and has a stated mission to "accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy," primarily by making electric cars mainstream.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment from Insider on the billboard.

Activista co-founders Beto Fernandez and Paco Conde told Insider the billboard was designed to create awareness around climate change and make people think more about what they could do to help address the issue.

"For many years people dreamt about Mars. But now we have access to real images of the red planet," Fernandez said in a press release. "So we decided to use these images as backgrounds for our social posts. Nothing like seeing the reality of this monotone, lifeless, boring and empty planet to emphasize the importance of us taking better care of the amazing planet we live in."

It's been a big week for SpaceX.

On Friday, the company launched one of its spacecrafts with four astronauts out of Florida, its first time reusing a spacecraft for a crewed mission. The spacecraft will spend six months at the International Space Station.

Last week, SpaceX was awarded an exclusive $2.9 billion contract to help NASA return to the moon.