Elon Musk wants to go well beyond Mars with the Interplanetary Transport System

The International Astronautical Congress is being held between 26 and 30 September and Elon Musk is expected to present a new Interplanetary Transport System (ITS). The system will be made up of reusable rockets, spacecraft, and habitats to transport cargo and people to and from planets in the Solar System. The ITS was formerly known as the Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT), but looks like Musk has ambitions for human colonies well beyond Mars. The announcement on Twitter included a clip from Lego Movie, of an engineer growing a little crazy about building a spaceship. Not very encouraging considering the recent Falcon 9 explosion or the questions over the safety of the Autopilot system used in Tesla’s electric vehicles. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/777325549442232320 Before announcing that the new name for the MCT would be the ITS, Musk took to Twitter to ask for suggestions on what the system could be called. Spacey McSpaceFace would have been ideal, but this is the name for an entire system, comprising of a fleet of ships, so a single spaceship name would not do. However, the Heart of Gold from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was one of the suggested names, and of course Musk is a fan of the series by Douglas Adams. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/776960194852958208 There was a shout out to Star Wars as well, and the legendary ship of Han Solo that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/776971939277438976 Our favorite suggestion was https://twitter.com/signmeupsantafe/status/776960060555526144 The developments shows Musk has greater ambitions for the outer solar system. Human colonies is a priority, and Musk is looking beyond just Mars to establish permanent deep space human presence. Possible destinations include Ceres, a dwarf planet in the Asteroid belt. A permanent settlement on Ceres could act as a base and transportation hub for the mining activities throughout the Asteroid belt. The next closest candidates are the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. The Jovian Satellite Europa is attractive because of the existence of liquid water. Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, may also have liquid water. Moons with liquid water can be used as refuelling stations and for establishing permanent settlements. Ganymede, Titan and other large moons are also potential destinations for the ITS.