Entrepreneur Elon Musk, who envisions a human colony on Mars, said Friday he is also planning to create a SpaceX rocket ship capable of traveling anywhere on Earth in under an hour. If the concept becomes reality, a journey from Tokyo to New York could be completed in about 30 minutes.
Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. has already disrupted the aerospace industry with reusable launches.
"If we are going to places like Mars, why not Earth?" Musk said Friday at the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia. A big screen behind him showed people getting on a high-speed ferry in New York, then boarding the rocket, code-named "BFR." The spaceship then headed for Shanghai.