CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk delivers a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, 29 September 2017.
CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk delivers a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, 29 September 2017.
Space travel, electric cars, colonies on Mars… and now, super-speedy travel across the planet. Elon Musk is targeting the construction of a rocket-ship that can reduce ANY long-haul journey to less than one hour.
The Pretoria-born billionaire addressed the 68th International Astronautical Congress on Friday in Adelaide, Australia. It came as a surprise, given that Musk is currently involved in plans to colonise Mars.
How fast can this thing go?
Code-named ‘BFR’, the high-velocity vehicle could limit a trip from New York to Shanghai to a mere 30-minute journey. It would be the same technology he’s using in his SpaceX programme. But instead of sending astronauts to Mars, it’ll whizz the rest of us across the globe.
Reaching speeds of 27,000 km/h, The proposed technology also quotes a London to Cape Town trip as a 35 minute ride, and claims a Johannesburg to Sydney flight would take just 37 minutes.
How would BFR work?
Elon Musk unveiled his plans during Friday morning’s Astronautical Congress, via a video that played on the big screen. It showed passengers boarding a boat which takes them to a launch pad.
The rocket would then have passengers embark at the nose, pointing skywards. The vehicle launches into earth’s atmosphere, and jettisons the main body from its tail when it goes into orbit.
The rocket then relies on propulsion technology to guide it in for a safe landing. Musk concludes his address once the video finishes, and asks ‘if we are going to Mars, then why not Earth?’
Watch Elon Musk reveal his latest vision here:
Musk, 46, has a net worth of more than $20bn and has said in the past he’d use his own personal assets to help fund his vision. He’s in Australia to help revolutionise their power grids, following heavy storms that have disrupted their energy supply.
He’s attempting to successfully install the world’s largest lithium battery, and offered to give them the technology for free if it wasn’t completed within 100 days.
Musk however, maintains he is ‘on target’.
