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posted by martyb on Saturday September 30 2017, @05:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-a-small-world dept.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk unveiled revised plans to travel to the Moon and Mars at a space industry conference today, but he ended his talk with a pretty incredible promise: using that same interplanetary rocket system for long distance travel on Earth. Musk showed a demonstration of the idea on stage, claiming that it will allow passengers to 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.

Musk proposed using SpaceX's forthcoming mega-rocket (codenamed "Big Fucking Rocket" or BFR for short) to lift a massive spaceship into orbit around the Earth. The ship would then settle down on floating landing pads near major cities. Both the new rocket and spaceship are currently theoretical, though Musk did say that he hopes to begin construction on the rocket in the next six to nine months.

Travelling by HyperLoop is so yesterday.

[Ed. addition follows] See also: The New York Times and Technology Review.

Video of the full presentation at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Adelaide, Australia is available on YouTube: Making Life Multiplanetary.


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  • (Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Saturday September 30 2017, @08:51PM (2 children)

    by BasilBrush (3994) on Saturday September 30 2017, @08:51PM (#575379)

    There seems little doubt SpaceX will be the company to put man on Mars, not Lockheed Martin.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday September 30 2017, @09:15PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday September 30 2017, @09:15PM (#575382) Journal

    Hint:

    Look at the first letter of each word in "Mars International Space Station".
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    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday October 01 2017, @05:10AM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday October 01 2017, @05:10AM (#575481) Journal

      The rocket that brings it there will then be called Mars International Space Transportation Enabling Rocket.

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