South African entrepreneur Elon Musk says it will soon be possible to travel anywhere on earth within minutes in a rocket. He revealed this on Friday at the International Astronautical Conference in Adelaide, Australia. The SpaceX CEO says he plans to replace his current fleet of rockets and capsules (Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon ) with new spacecraft that can travel to the moon, Mars or even around earth within minutes.
He showed a demo of this new rocket system (codenamed “Big Fucking Rocket” or BFR for short). According to Musk, “the in-development reusable spacecraft would be a Jack of all trades that would make SpaceX’s current fleet “redundant”. The BFR would be able to transport satellites into orbit, as well as take crew and cargo to the International Space Station, the Moon and Mars. He claimed this will “allow passengers take “most long distance trips” in just 30 minutes, and go “anywhere on Earth in under an hour” for around the same price of an economy airline ticket.”
The video shows that people will be able to travel from New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes, Hong Kong to Singapore in 22 minutes, London to Dubai or New York in 29 minutes, and Los Angeles to Toronto in 24 minutes.
Check out the video below.
Musk also presented his goal to get to Mars by 2022 and take humans to Mars by 2024. He said his company, SpaceX will fly two cargo ships to Mars in 2022 and two crew ships and two cargo ships in 2024.
The first mission will be to find a source of water, while the second mission will be to set up a propellant production plant.
“A base will be built, and “over time, terraforming Mars and making it a nice place to be.”
Elon Musk said that the SpaceX will begin the construction of the BFR next year, and it’ll be funded by revenue from launching satellites and servicing the International Space Station.
