Musk said a base on the moon would make space travel heaps easier because you wouldn’t need to keep coming back to Earth to re-fuel. “We believe we can do this with the revenue that we receive launching satellites and for servicing the space station”.

By 2024, Musk said, 100 people could then travel to the planet in the BFR.

Musk says that SpaceX’s new super-rocket (codenamed “Big Fucking Rocket” or BFR for short) will be able to lift a massive spaceship into orbit.

The company is developing a giant reusable rocketship for those missions – called BFR, or Big Falcon Rocket.

As well as being the CEO and chief designer at SpaceX, Mr Musk also founded the Tesla electric vehicle company and is chairman of SolarCity which specialises in renewables technologies, such as high-storage batteries. After all, as he pointed out, that was small enough that it could fit inside SpaceX’s existing factories.

It will be the largest rocket ever built. It would be much larger than anything which now has any commercial application. He did not discuss costs. And it’ll be a while before SpaceX can make them a reality.

But instead of heading off to another planet once they leave the Earth’s atmosphere, the ship separates and breaks off toward another “in this world destination” like Shanghai in minutes.

Oh, And One More Thing…

… This craft would be able to refuel in orbit and set out to Mars with full tanks.

Stay tuned for more updates to come.

As with much of SpaceX’s space ambitions, sustainability is a key element, and the BFR will be created to be a reusable rocket.

Tesla said the event was powered entirely by Powerpack batteries, the same systems being used in the South Australian array. But this remains to be seen. As a result, SpaceX will also be building mining, power, and life support infrastructure.

That’s the same rocket that Musk says could be used to zoom people from city to city on Earth, traveling as fast as 27,000 kilometers per hour (17,000 mph).

Toward the end of Musk’s highly technical presentation, animation played on a big screen behind him, showing scores of people getting on a high-speed ferry in NY, then boarding the BFR on a platform in the water.

A trip from Hong Kong to Singapore would take 22 minutes, compared to the 4 hours it now takes on a plane. Navigating round those issues may be possible; but it may not be a great deal easier than landing intrepid customers on Mars.