Musk to detail plans to colonise Mars at Adelaide conference
TECH billionaire Elon Musk says he will give an update about his company SpaceX’s plans to develop technology that would help colonise Mars at a space conference in Adelaide later this year.
TECH billionaire Elon Musk says he will give an update about his company SpaceX’s plans to develop technology that would help colonise Mars at a space conference in Adelaide later this year.
Adelaide is set to host the world’s largest astronautic congress in September this year.
Musk made the comments at the International Space Station Research and Development conference in Washington earlier this week, Space.com reports.
According to the report, while Musk has his sights set on colonising the Red Planet, he’d also like to see a human outpost on the moon.
“To really get the public real fired up, I think we’ve got to have a base on the moon,” Mr Musk, who was in Adelaide earlier this month to announce plans to build the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery at Jamestown, reportedly told the conference.
“Having some permanent presence on another heavenly body, which would be the kind of moon base, and then getting people to Mars and beyond — that’s the continuance of the dream of Apollo that I think people are really looking for,” Mr Musk said, according to the report.
Musk unveiled SpaceX’s ambitious plans to colonise Mars at the last space congress in Mexico, in September 2016.
The company’s plan is to design and build an “Interplanetary Transport System” (ITS) which would include a re-usable rocket/spaceship combination, powerful enough to travel to Mars and back to Earth.
An unmanned ship would be sent to Mars first carrying the necessary equipment required to build a plant to produce refuelling propellant for return trips to Earth.
Manned ships would follow to construct the plant.
Meanwhile, Musk says he has “verbal government approval” to build a tunnel for high-speed transportation from New York to Washington that could break ground by the end of this year.
Musk didn’t say who gave him the approval, and he acknowledged that the deal is far from finalised.
But the White House confirmed it had “positive discussions” about the tunnel with Musk and executives from his underground drilling enterprise, The Boring Co.
Musk said hyperloop tunnels could ferry people, cars and even bikes from New York to Washington in 29 minutes.