Elon Musk, SpaceX founder and CEO, unveiled the company’s Interplanetary Transport System (ITS) at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico today, which combines the most powerful rocket ever built with a spaceship designed to carry at least 100-people to Mars per flight. The reusable ITS design aims to help humanity establish a permanent, self-sustaining colony on the Red Planet within the next 50-100 years. “What I really want to do here is to make Mars seem possible – make it seem as though it’s something that we could do in our lifetimes, and that you can go,” said Musk. Continue reading for another video and more information. Click here for new images of Mars captured by NASA spacecraft.

“The ITS rocket will be more or less a scaled-up version of the first stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster, Musk said. But the 254-foot-tall (77.5 meters) ITS booster will feature 42 Raptor engines, whereas the Falcon 9 is powered by nine Merlins. When combined with its crewed spaceship, the ITS will stand a full 400 feet (122 m) high. That would make it the largest spaceflight system ever built, taller even than NASA’s legendary Saturn V moon rocket. The spaceship, which sits atop the booster, will be 162 feet (49.5 m) tall and 56 feet (17 m) wide and will have nine Raptors of its own,” reports Space.

Author

A technology, gadget and video game enthusiast that loves covering the latest industry news. Favorite trade show? Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.