Elon Musk to unveil Mars plans this year, wants to go to space by 2020

Elon Musk, SpaceX chief executive, at the StartmeupHK Festival this week. Screen capture from YouTube. (credit: StartmeupHK)

During the StartmeupHK Festival in Hong Kong this week, an expansive Elon Musk addressed some key questions about SpaceX's ambitions for Mars, as well as his personal spaceflight plans.

For the last few months rumors have been swirling within the aerospace community about how the company would soon unveil an ambitious architecture that will allow it to begin human missions to Mars within a decade. In response to those rumors, a company source told Ars that nothing was "imminent," and that appears to be true.

During the forum, uploaded to YouTube, Musk said, "I'm hoping to describe that architecture later this year at IAC ... and I think that will be quite exciting." This year's International Astronautical Conference will be held in Guadalajara, Mexico, from September 26 to 30. This may include discussion of both a super-heavy rocket as well as starships that could ferry large numbers of people from Earth to Mars, known as the Mars Colonial Transporter.

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from Scientific Method – Ars Technica http://ift.tt/1WQg9Er
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