Tech: Here's Elon Musk's new-and-improved plan to colonize Mars with a giant reusable spaceship

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX, is presenting an updated plan for colonizing Mars with 1 million people.

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX, has presented an updated plan for colonizing Mars with 1 million people.

The International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia, hosted Musk's presentation on Friday, and SpaceX streamed video of the event via a YouTube Live feed. (You can rewatch the 42-minute talk here.)

Musk tweeted on Monday that he'd unveil "major improvements" and "unexpected applications" in the talk, which is an update to his one-hour presentation at last year's IAC in Guadalajara, Mexico — where he revealed his gigantic Mars vehicle plans.

"This should be worth seeing," Musk tweeted before his IAC 2017 talk. "Design feels right."

Here are the highlights of Musk's latest presentation.

Musk started off his talk by teasing a big improvement on cost.

"I can't think of anything more exciting than being out there among the stars," Musk said.

"I think the most important thing I'm going to convey in this presentation is that I think we've figured out how to pay for it," he added, referring to a system he called the "BFR" — short for "Big F---ing Rocket."

The goal of the BFR is cannibalize and replace all of SpaceX's current launch and spaceflight systems, he said, including 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket, the upcoming Falcon Heavy rocket, and its spaceship for NASA, the Dragon.

Then he gave a quick overview of SpaceX's history.

He noted the company nearly went bankrupt after its first three launches — all of which were failures.

The fourth launch worked, allowing SpaceX to survive and get where it is today: Poised to launch nearly 30 orbital rockets a year — half the world's share

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Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX, is presenting an updated plan for colonizing Mars with 1 million people. Read Full Story