MUSK VISION: DELHI TO TOKYO IN 30 MINUTES!
ADELAIDE: Futurist and inventor Elon Musk unveiled ambitious plans Friday to send cargo ships to Mars in five years and use rockets to carry people between Earth’s major cities in under half-an-hour.
The founder of SpaceX said a planned interplanetary transport system, codenamed BFR, would be downsized so it could carry out a range of tasks that would then pay for future Mars missions. “The most important thing... is that I think we have figured out how to pay for (BFR),” Musk said at a global gathering of space experts in Adelaide. “Which is to have a smaller vehicle, it’s still pretty big, but one that can... do everything that’s needed in the greater Earth orbit activity.”
Musk said his firm had starting building the system, with the construction of the first ship to start in six to nine months.
At least two cargo ships would land on the Red Planet in 2022, with the key mission of finding the best source of water—currently mooted as a way to power rockets, he said.
The rockets would place power, mining and life-support infrastructure on Mars to support future missions
Musk added that the rockets should also cater to Earth inhabitants by reducing the travel between major cities to less than half-an-hour.
A trip from Bangkok to Dubai would take 27 minutes, and from Tokyo to Delhi in 30 minutes, according to his calculations.
“Once you are out of the atmosphere, it would be as smooth as silk, no turbulence, nothing,” he said.