Humans could travel to Mars as early as 2024 with the aim of building a colony on the red planet, Elon Musk has claimed.

Musk's space exploration company SpaceX has laid out ambitious plans to establish a base on Mars after it unveiled a reusable rocket that it said could travel at speeds of up to 27,000 kilometres per hour (16,777 mph).

SpaceX said it would be able to establish a base on the moon and fly two cargo missions to Mars in 2022 that would be able to find water and place power and life support infrastructure.