Elon Musk Wants to Make Fast, Affordable, Around-the-World Rocket Travel a Reality

Everyone loves travelling overseas. No one loves the actual travel part. From airport queues to uncomfortable plane seats to lost baggage, getting from A to B is the ordeal you have to endure before the fun begins. Enter Elon Musk, and a plan to change that.

In Adelaide for the International Astronautical Conference, the South African entrepreneur advised that he foresees next-generation spacecraft not only ferrying people beyond the earth, but across it as well. With his SpaceX company currently readying a rocket-powered trip around the moon in 2018, and preparing to head to Mars in 2022 and 2024, he wants to be able to use the same types of vessels to journey between continents.

It all hinges upon the BFR — or "Big Fucking Rocket" — that's currently in development, and is being designed for multiple uses. Musk said that he envisions the system taking both crew and cargo into space, and then helping folks hop around the globe at 27,000 kilometres per hour. In an Instagram post after his speech, he explained that it would take 30 minutes to fly to most places and 60 minutes at most — all for the same full-fare price as current economy airline tickets.

As futuristic as it might sound now, if anyone can make it a reality, it's probably Musk. He has already promised to revolutionise journeying between cities and across continents thanks to his Hyperloop system, a high-speed vacuum transport setup that'll never stop sounding like a sci-fi movie come to life. And, in preparation for SpaceX's rocket jaunts, he has also sent a zero gravity espresso machine to space. Travel and caffeine go hand-in-hand, after all.

Via the ABC / Dezeen. Image: SpaceX.