SpaceX is just one of the companies that’s working to put humans on Mars. One of its inventions for this purpose is the Mars Colonial Transporter, which as the name suggests is meant for transporting humans from Earth to the Red Planet. It’s only after humans have landed on Mars will people really start thinking about putting them on another planet, but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is already saying that his company’s invention will be pivotal in that.
Musk revealed via Twitter – which appears to have become his favorite medium for talking about stuff – that the Mars Colonial Transporter developed by SpaceX is capable of going “well beyond Mars,” so it would be apt to give it a new name.
His followers were quick to pick up on this and many turned it into an impromptu naming contest. Some great suggestions were tweeted to Musk, including Heart of Gold, which was lifted directly from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and happens to be Musk’s “favorite fictional spaceship.”
SpaceX’s MCT has been designed for use with the company’s Raptor rocket engine to send humans to Mars. However, it’s certainly going to take a long time before that happens. An unmanned launch of the Raptor and MCT has been planned for 2022 while the first manned mission is expected to take off by 2024.
Turns out MCT can go well beyond Mars, so will need a new name…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2016
Maybe Ultimate Spaceship, Version 2? Mostly because it is not the ultimate and there isn't a version 1.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2016
Filed in . Read more about Mars, Rockets and Spacex. Source: techcrunch