Paying for it

In order to make the rocket affordable, Musk said SpaceX will rely on cost savings from reusability, as well as combining all of the company's vehicles into a single product line.

"We want to have one booster and ship that replaces Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon," he said. "If we can do that, all those resources can be applied to this system."

Musk said the larger transport ship would enhance the company's core business offering: launching satellites. He showed off an artist's concept of a Mars craft deploying a supersized-version of the Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit, and also said the transport ship could capture defunct satellites and other space debris for return to Earth.

Another possible SpaceX revenue stream is Moon landings.

NASA currently plans to construct a small space station in lunar orbit called the Deep Space Gateway that could serve as a jumping-off point for commercial or international partners interested in landing on the Moon. There is speculation the Trump administration might direct NASA to get more involved with surface operations, leading multiple companies to present lunar vehicle concepts that could compete for government funding. Notably, Lockheed Martin presented a Mars lander of its own earlier today, and said the design was flexible enough for lunar applications.

Musk also said a single tank of fuel, delivered in Earth orbit, would be enough for the transport ship to travel to the lunar surface and return, without any surface mining.

A final, wildly ambitious revenue stream for the project could be point-to-point Earth flights. SpaceX released a new video depicting a 39-minute passenger flight from New York to Shanghai.