New Video Shows How We'll Travel to Mars, According to Elon Musk

Billionaire Elon Musk's space travel company SpaceX today released a video that demonstrates on a high level how its "interplanetary transport system" might work to bring humans to Mars.

On display in the video are two main things: a new rocket that would blast off the Earth's surface and an interplanetary spaceship to bring passengers to other planets. According to the video, the rocket needs 28.73 million pounds of thrust to take off, though it's unclear how many people it might hold. The thruster module is then released as the rest of the rocket heads to "parking orbit." Importantly, the booster module is resuable, which Musk says may lower the cost of space travel substantially.

The booster lands on the same mount that the rocket took off from in the video. Some of SpaceX's early landing tests were not successful, though they have improved over time.

A propellant tanker is then attached to the rocket and it heads back up into space. This then meets up with the ship carrying the humans and refuels the craft, giving it the necessary energy to blast off for its destination, which in this case is Mars. The tanker then heads back to Earth.

The spaceship bound for Mars needs more power than the tanker can give it to make it to the faraway planet. It has solar arrays that emerge from both sides of the ship than can generate 200 kW of power, according to the video.

On its journey to Mars, the SpaceX ship will travel 62,634 miles per hour at its "coast" speed. The ship is next seen approaching Mars, where the entry temperature is more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Having never been there before, there is no landing pad on Mars, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for the ship, as it gracefully lands on the surface. One of the final sequences in the video shows the passengers, who are wearing spacesuits, peering out onto the red planet.

Musk is currently giving a talk at the International Astronautical Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico where he's providing more details about how he thinks this will work.

SpaceX, which is a private company, isn't the only organization with its sights set on Mars. NASA, the government group that put a man on the moon in 1969, recently authorized $19.5 billion in spending to continue work on a Mars mission, among other things, according to USA Today.

The move comes ahead of this November's presidential election. It aims to protect NASA's efforts to go Mars, regardless of who might be in power. In 2010, President Obama did away with President George W. Bush's Constellation program that aimed to see NASA return to manned moon missions.

What do you make of the SpaceX concept video? Let us know in the comments below.