THE FINAL FRONTIER — Billionaire inventor Elon Musk this week unveiled perhaps his biggest, most ambitious plan yet — colonizing the Red Planet with one million people. <br /> <br />According to a presentation posted on the SpaceX website, the planned “Interplanetary Transport System”, or I.T.S., would use a spacecraft composed of a 250-foot reuseable rocket and 100-passenger spaceship to transport humans back and forth to Mars. <br /> <br />Musk envisions a thousand-strong Mars colonial fleet of these ships departing en-masse, reported Space.com. He unveiled the plans while speaking to a crowd at the 2016 International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. <br /> <br />Both parts of the ITS would be made up of carbon fiber, while the rocket would be powered by 42 SpaceX Raptor Engines. <br /> <br />The rocket booster segment of the ITS will transport the spaceship to low Earth orbit. <br />That same rocket would then return to Earth and launch again with a propellant tank. This tank then connects with the spaceship and refuel the vessel. <br /> <br />The spaceship would use nine Space-X Raptor engines, as well as solar sails, which gather energy from the sun, on the 54.6-million kilometer journey to Mars. After transporting the cargo and passengers, the spaceship would refuel at the planned Martian colony and fly back to Earth. <br /> <br />The current price-person for the journey is priced at US$10 billion, but Musk hopes to get that to below $200,000.
