Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has flagged a potential return visit to Adelaide, as his company SpaceX prepares to unveil a revised plan for an unmanned mission to Mars.
Mr Musk made a brief visit to the South Australian capital earlier this month to announce Tesla's plan to build the "world's most powerful" lithium ion battery array near Jamestown in the state's Mid North.
In September last year, the SpaceX founder used the International Astronautical Congress in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara to unveil ambitious plans to build a human colony on Mars.
The vision included using a massive rocket and a fleet of spaceships to achieve a self-sustaining population on the Red Planet this century.
Adelaide is hosting this year's International Astronautical Congress in late September.
"I'm thinking probably the upcoming ISC in Adelaide might be a good opportunity to do the updated version of the Mars architecture," Mr Musk told a space conference in Washington DC overnight.
"Because it's evolved quite a bit since that last talk."
He suggested SpaceX may abandon plans to land an unmanned Dragon cargo capsule on Mars — which had been suggested for as early as next year.
"The key think that we figured out is, is how do you pay for this whole, something to go to Mars?," he told conference delegates.
"It's super expensive.
"If we downsize the Mars vehicle, make it capable of doing earth orbit activity as well as Mars activity then maybe we can pay for it using earth orbit activity.
"That's one of the key elements in the new architecture. It's similar to what was at ISC.
"It's a little bit smaller — still big — but I think this one's got a shot at being real on the economic front."
