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Adelaide, September 29
Futurist and inventor Elon Musk unveiled ambitious plans on 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 (Big Fucking Rocket), would be downsized so it could carry out a range of tasks that would then pay for future Mars missions.
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“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 begun building the system, with the construction of the first ship to start in six to nine months. “I feel fairly confident that we can launch in about five years,” he added.
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 trips would be funded by a range of activities, including launching satellites.
Musk said the rockets should also reduce the travel between cities. “A trip from Bangkok to Dubai would take 27 minutes, from Tokyo to Delhi in 30 minutes”.
“Once you are out of the atmosphere, it would be as smooth as silk, no turbulence, nothing,” he said. — AFP
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