Starship, if realized as designed, would be the most powerful launch system ever created; each launch would pack enough thrust to send more than 100 tons (about seven fully loaded school buses' worth of mass) and 100 people into orbit at a time.

Musk didn't specify what exactly the rockets would need to carry to Mars, but a lot of food, water, building materials, tools, and advanced life-support systems are a given. Thus, he estimated he would need a whole fleet of Starships to build a permanent settlement.

In total, 1,000 Starships could hypothetically transport about 100 megatons of stuff to Mars; that's the volume Musk has said he hopes to send to the red planet per year. With each ship ferrying about 100 passengers, that would make for a total migration of about 100,000 people.

Musk also suggested he planned to capitalize on the brief windows of time that the orbits of Earth and Mars align - which come about every 25 months. That allows spacecraft to spring off of Earth's rotation and set themselves on a low-fuel journey toward Mars.

Musk said he would take advantage of that opportunity by "loading the Mars fleet into Earth orbit," then sending all 1,000 ships on a Mars-bound trajectory over that 30-day window every 26 months.

Continue reading the businessinsider.com article.