What once sounded like science fiction is actually nearing reality as each day passes by and Elon Musk and SpaceX believe that they could showcase their marvelous reusable rockets in early 2019. According to the plan, SpaceX could test its Mars rockets by flying them for short distances which would mean that the 11,851 kilometers of distance between Shanghai to New York could just be a matter of 30 minutes.

Musk surprises tech fans at SXSW

Elon Musk decided to pay his fans a surprise visit when the Tesla and SpaceX CEO decided to go one on one with the people at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas.

The biggest revelation of the night was his plans regarding the testing of his ambitious SpaceX rockets. The company went down in the history of sciences when they successfully tested a reusable launching system which was intended to make interplanetary travel cost efficient, a vision which was deemed by many as eccentric.

However, after the success of the Falcon 1 rockets, the scenario has changed completely and people around the world have started acknowledging the idea of interplanetary travel. Musk revealed that Flacon 1's successor BFR or the Big Falcon Rocket will be nearing its completion in the early months of 2019. The rocket will be equipped with a self-fueling mechanism and would be completely reusable which would reduce the cost of traveling in space and would allow resupplying at the International Space Station (ISS) on the moon by making multiple trips.

With all that said, SpaceX plans to use rockets that would produce thrust two times stronger than the Saturn 5 which was the rocket that carried Apollo all the way.

However, Musk sensed that too much anticipation could hurt him and quipped that he might be a little too ambitious about the timeline of testing the rockets.

Colonization of Mars

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO plans to take human life to Mars and start a whole new colony on the red planet. The BFR could be the sole way to take people from every stratum of society to Mars and according to Musk, its success would encourage companies to embark on similar ventures. Musk plans to start sending the BFR rockets to Mars by 2022 and the first shipment would take cargo to the planet for a test run before convoys of people would be accommodated in the revolutionary rocket.

About living on Mars, Musk has said that it would be very difficult to begin with, and would require brave people and some very modern machinery to set up glass domes and colonies on Mars. He further added that after the initial set up is done for Mars, it would create huge entrepreneurial openings for people and would require everything from bars and pizza joints to iron foundries.

When questioned about donning the role of the "God-Emperor of Mars" Musk replied that he would rather let the people choose their leader, while he would help in the creation of a simplified law system. Apart from this, Musk answered various questions based on his personal life, artificial intelligence, and other technological advancements in recent times.

Watch the whole Q&A session here:
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