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Elon Musk Reveals Rocket That Could Take Man To Mars In 2020

Elon Musk Reveals Rocket That Could Take Man To Mars In 2020

It's one small step for 'Ol Musky, one giant leap for mankind, as the tech billionaire inches us ever closer to a new life in space.

Paddy Maddison

Paddy Maddison

We've all probably fantasised about leaving planet Earth behind at some point over the last two years, but unfortunately it's not as if we can just hop on a bus, dust our hands off and be done with it.

However, for those of us genuinely hoping to abscond, there is now an Elon Musk-shaped light at the end of the tunnel.

The multi-billionaire, entrepreneur genius has become something of a god-like figure when it comes to tech, and his latest revelation gives us all a glimpse at the rocket that could one day accomplish the stuff of science fiction and finally take man to the red planet.

Credit: Elon Musk/Twitter

The Falcon Heavy rocket from Musk's company, SpaceX, is situated inside SpaceX's hangar at Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida. With all going according to plan, it will lay the foundations on which the tech pioneer can build his much talked-about Mars mission.

The new rocket was showcased in three separate photos that Musk tweeted out to his 16 million followers today.

"Falcon Heavy at the Cape," he posted, along with a photo.

The Falcon Heavy is basically a turbo-charged version of the Falcon 9 booster, a rocket used frequently to carries supplies to the International Space Station.

It is made up of three Falcon 9s fixed together, with a grand total of 27 engines generating over 5 million pounds of thrust. That's roughly the same as eighteen 747 aircraft.

From the start, Falcon Heavy was designed with the express purpose of transporting people in mind. The first passengers will travel to Mars in a Dragon space capsule, which will be mounted to the top of the rocket booster.

Credit: Elon Musk/Twitter

With everything in place, Space X intends to fly two tourists on a little jaunt around the Moon as early as 2018 and to Mars by 2020.

"It would be quite fun to be on Mars because you would have gravity that is about 37% of that of Earth," Musk said in a paper published earlier this year. "So you would be able to lift heavy things and bound around."

Obviously, that's not the only reason the Tesla tech heavyweight wants to travel to the red planet. The long-term goal for Musk has always been to start a colony on Mars, but he is even more heavily focused on making things here on Earth sustainable first.

"I'm less concerned about making humans a multi-planetary species than I am about making the Earth a sustainable multi-species planet," he said. "Before we go gadding off colonising the solar system."

Well, you've got two years to figure that one out, Elon mate. Best get cracking.

Featured Image Credit: Elon Musk/Twitter

Topics: elon musk, US News, mars, tech, space