SpaceX, the private space company set up by Elon Musk, is on the verge of unveiling ambitious new plans about its future, which have described as the 'most exciting thing ever'.

A tantalising tease about the announcement was posted on twitter by a journalist who claims to have been shown details of the company's ambitions.

The ambiguous message has set Twitter and the internet ablaze with speculation about whether the firm is about to announce its plans to build a colony on Mars.

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Tease: It may take weeks, or even months, to be announced, but what I've just been shown is THE most exciting thing EVER. #SpaceX — Chris B - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) October 6, 2015

A tweet by Chris Bergin, managing editor of space news website NASASpaceFlight, (above) has sparked a storm of speculation about what SpaceX may be preparing to announce

Musk, the founder of PayPal and Tesla Motors, set up SpaceX 13 years ago and has been developing reusable rockets and the Dragon spacecraft to provide supplies to the International Space Station.

The company is also now developing a crewed version of Dragon and is working with Nasa on a mission to land a capsule on the Red Planet in 2020 to send back samples to Earth.

A DRAGON ON THE RED PLANET Nasa employees have revealed details of a 'budget' plan to send a SpaceX capsule to the red planet in 2020 to return samples to Earth. The 'Red Dragon' project was developed by a team at Nasa looking at using SpaceX's spacecraft. It would grab samples collected by the space agency's 2020 rover and return them to Earth. The sample-return effort would keep costs and complexity down by using SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket and a modified version of the company's robotic Dragon cargo capsule, the concept's developers say. Red Dragon is 'technically feasible with the use of these emerging commercial technologies, coupled with technologies that already exist,' Andy Gonzales, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, said during a presentation with the space agency's Future In-Space Operations (FISO) working group. The adapted Red Dragon would include a robotic arm, extra fuel tanks and a central tube that houses a rocket-powered Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) and an Earth Return Vehicle (ERV). The Red Dragon team developed the concept independently, without any involvement or endorsement by SpaceX, but Elon Musk later backed the idea. Advertisement

Musk has also recently been detailing plans to use nuclear explosions in the atmosphere of Mars to help warm it up and make it more habitable for humans.

However, SpaceX is also said to be working on a project known as the Mars Colonial Transport, which will use a system of reusable rockets and capsules to transport humans to Mars.

Musk has said the transporter will be '100 times the size of an SUV' and be capable of carrying 100 people to Mars at a time. His company has been developing a new super-heavy launch rocket called Raptor and conducted the first tests last year.

In January Musk said during a discussion on Reddit that he hoped to release details of the 'new architecture' for the Mars transport system in late 2015.

Now according to Chris Bergin, the managing editor and founder of space news website NASASpaceFlight, the company may be about to make that announcement.

He posted a tantalising message on his Twitter feed after apparently being shown plans by executives at SpaceX.

He wrote: 'Tease: It may take weeks, or even months, to be announced, but what I've just been shown is THE most exciting thing EVER. #SpaceX'

He later followed this with a second tweet that said: 'And I've told myself a trillion times not to exaggerate, but in this case, I'm not.'

The messages immediately prompted a stream of speculation about what the announcement could be.

.@NASASpaceflight It's the Mars Colonial Transporter. The spacecraft that @elonmusk will use to take 1M people to Mars. #SpaceX #MCT 🚀 — Pradiip Alvarez (@PradiipAlvarez) October 8, 2015

SpaceX has been working on a project called the Mars Colonisation Transport to establish a Martian base for future manned missions to the Red Planet. There is speculation the company is preparing to announce its plans. Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, recently released artist's impressions of its Dragon capsule on Mars

Conspicuously, while Bergin responded to Twitter users who suggested it might be about a new type of spacecraft thruster called an EM Drive to say it was not this idea, he did not respond to those who asked if it might be about the Mars Colonisation Transport.

In a post on NASASpaceFlight, Mr Bergin added: 'So I better explain. Yes, I am extremely excited. I personally think it's the most exciting info I've ever had the privilege of seeing.

'I can say to you, with a lot of confidence, everything one hopes SpaceX is, has been promising and may become, is more than you could have hoped for.

SpaceX has released images that show its Dragon space capsule approaching and landing on Mars (pictured). Nasa has also drawn up plans to use SpaceX's Dragon for future missions to Mars

SpaceX has successfully used its Dragon capsule to deliver supplies to the International Space Station and is now developing a version that will be able to carry crew. However, its Mars Colonisation Transport is expected to be several orders of magnitude bigger - capable of carrying hundreds of passengers

'We all know the forward plan, but I think we're all going to be blown away by just how big those plans are, even if only half of it becomes a reality.'

MailOnline contacted SpaceX to ask if an announcement was imminent and for a comment about Mr Bergin's statement but has still to receive a response.

The company, however, has clearly been thinking about Mars with Musk posting three weeks ago a series of artist's impression of the SpaceX Dragon capsule landing on the Red Planet.

Elon Musk (pictured) launched SpaceX 13 years ago and has spoken in the past about his hopes of supporting future missions to Mars

ELON MUSK WANTS TO MAKE MARS HABITABLE BY NUKING THE PLANET Elon Musk has revealed more details of his controversial plan to bomb Mars. The SpaceX and Tesla founder was speaking at the launch of a new solar panel from another of his firms, Solar City. He said the plan would use a new type of 'pulse bomb' to create two suns in the Martian atmosphere to warm the planet. Mashable's Lance Ulanoff asked the found his feelings about the recent discovery of water on the red planet. After answering 'Yeah, that's good,' he detailed his plan to make the red planet livable. 'What I was talking about,' said Musk, 'was having a series of very large, by our standards, but very small by calamity standards, essentially having two tiny pulsing suns over the poles. 'They're really above the planet. Not on the planet. Every several seconds send large fusion bombs over the poles.' Those bombs would 'blink out, like a small sun' and then you could send up more to keep going with the process, Musk added. He said: 'A lot of people don't appreciate that our sun is a giant fusion explosion.' 'So if you have two basically tiny suns over the pole that would warm up the planet.'Then you would gasify frozen carbon dioxide, thicken the atmosphere and warm up the water and all of that would have a greenhouse effect. 'Have a cascading effect to continue warming up the planet.' Advertisement

It also retweeted Nasa's recent announcement that liquid water may be flowing on the surface of Mars.

A short Vine posted by SpaceX also showed a coffee mug emblazoned with the words 'Occupy Mars' on one side and a colour changing picture of the Red Planet on the other.

Writing on Reddit in January this year, Musk said: 'The Mars transport system will be a completely new architecture. Am hoping to present that towards the end of this year.

SpaceX recently posted this Vine on its Twitter page showing a colour changing mug emblazoned with the slogan 'Occupy Mars

'(The) goal is 100 metric tons of useful payload to the surface of Mars. This obviously requires a very big spaceship and booster system.'

SpaceX is not the only private enterprise with its eyes on Mars, though with the non-profit Mars One aiming to create a permanent human settlement on Mars in 2027.