We already know SpaceX CEO Elon Musk plans to send people to Mars as soon as 2024. But over the weekend,?? ?? ??? he hinted on Twitter that his ambitions are much bigger: He wants to conquer the rest of our solar system as well.
According to Musk, SpaceX's Mars Colonial Transporter, a spacecraft designed to carry both cargo and astronauts to Mars, is actually designed to go "well beyond" Mars. As such, it naturally means the MCT needs a new name, and Musk already has an idea.
SEE ALSO: India offers land to Elon Musk to test HyperloopTurns out MCT can go well beyond Mars, so will need a new name…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2016
One candidate for the new name was the modest-sounding "Ultimate Spaceship, Version 2."
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Maybe Ultimate Spaceship, Version 2? Mostly because it is not the ultimate and there isn't a version 1.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2016
However, it appears Musk has ultimately settled for "Interplanetary Transport System."
Preview of the @SpaceX interplanetary transport system at @IAC2016https://t.co/Rz4XmeAoRw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 18, 2016
While Musk's Twitter remarks appear to be very casual in nature, the news that the MCT can go beyond Mars is interesting. Little is known about that particular spacecraft, and Musk plans to unveil more about the Mars mission on Sept. 27, during the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. For an overview of what is known about the MCT -- or ITS, as it stands now -- check this video.
So what could the ITS be used for, besides bringing 100 tons of cargo (or about 100 astronauts -- both figures come from SpaceX's head of rocket engine development Tom Mueller), to Mars? We'll leave the crazy predictions to Musk, but the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and the planet Venus (which is, on average, closer to Earth than Mars, but a worse candidate for terraforming, which is something Musk is interested in), are the most likely candidates for a visit.
If there's something Elon Musk loves to do, it's defying expectations. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has consistently promised nearly impossible things, only to casually reveal later that his original plans were even more grand -- for example, in June 2013 Tesla surprised everyone by showing that the battery in its Model S sedan can be swapped in less than 90 seconds.
It does not always work -- for example, this month's SpaceX rocket explosion was possibly a big setback to the company's plans, and the battery swapping Model S program mentioned above was later abandoned. But even the possibility of a private company launching missions -- crewed or otherwise -- to planets or moons beyond Mars, will be very exciting for anyone interested in space travel.