Elon Musk's Mars rocket can go "well beyond Mars" and he's crowdsourcing a new name
Sending people to Mars would be perhaps the most impressive accomplishment in all of human history, but apparently that's not good enough for tech titan Elon Musk.
Sometime this year Musk was rumored to reveal the plans of a giant rocket called the Mars Colonial Transporter capable of carrying 100 people to the red planet in one trip. But now Musk has raised the stakes, tweeting that the MCT can go "well beyond Mars," so it needs a new name.
And of course, the internet stepped in to help with name suggestions:
For now it seems Musk is calling it the Interplanetary Transport System:
Mars is not the only potentially habitable world in our solar system, but it's always been the favorite destination for a human colony because it's so close to Earth. Now Musk is sending a message that it might be possible to colonize more distant places. For example, scientists have suggested Jupiter's moon Callisto or dwarf planet Ceres might be habitable.
It's also a sign that SpaceX's recent static fire test mishap that destroyed a $60 million Falcon 9 rocket and a $200 million satellite, isn't slowing down the company's progress.
Musk is expected to reveal the plans for the interplanetary transport system at the International Astronautical Congress meeting in Mexico on Sept. 27.