The space industry conference took place several days ago, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk presented revised plans for Moon and Mars travels. However, he shocked the world when he announced that the same interplanetary rocket system could be used for long-distance journeys here on Earth. Musk made a demonstration onstage, claiming that people could go “anywhere on Earth in under an hour.” The good thing that it would cost the same as an economy airline ticket.
For this kind of travel, Musk suggests we use SpaceX’s BFR rocket that is used to lift a massive spaceship into Earth’s orbit, but which is still in development. Floating landing pads would be placed near the main cities for the ship to land. Unfortunately, both the spaceship and the rocket are still possible only in theory, but Musk hopes that his team will start assembling the rocket in the next six to nine months.
Musk showed us a video in which we could see the passengers taking a large boat from a New York City dock in order to reach a floating launchpad placed in the water. This rocket is intended to go to Mars, but instead of that, the people will be transported to Shanghai in just 39 minutes. Once it arrives, it will land on the same floating pad placed near Shanghai.
Some of the other destinations Musk wants to cover are from Hong Kong to Singapore in 22 minutes, from London to Dubai and New York in 29 minutes and from Toronto to Los Angeles in 24 minutes. This type of travel would be the fastest one ever created by humanity and the people boarding the rocket would experience speeds of up to 18,000 miles per hour at its highest.
If Musk starts building the rocket according to the plan, do you think this kind of travel will be possible in the near future?
