SpaceX founder Elon Musk envisions 1,000 passenger ships flying to a self-sustaining city on Mars within the next century. Musk outlined his plan Tuesday to establish a city on Mars with several ships, each with about 100 passengers, making the voyages. Flights could start within a decade "if things go super-well," he said.

"I think Earth will be a good place for a long time, but the probable lifespan of human civilization will be much greater if we're a multiplanetary species," he said.

Musk, who also runs electric car maker Tesla Motors, spoke at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.

For now, the aerospace company he founded in 2002 is focusing on satellite deliveries, as well as space station cargo runs for NASA and a future crew capsule for U.S. astronauts. Its Falcon rocket, though, is grounded for the second time in a year because of devastating accidents.

Musk noted that SpaceX already has begun work on the Mars Colonial fleet, recently test-firing a powerful new rocket engine named Raptor. The system ultimately could take people to the moons of Jupiter and beyond, he said.

Musk said the goal is to get the price down so anyone could afford to go, with a ticket costing no more than a house on Earth. Fares would start at roughly $200,000 and drop toward $100,000 over time. He's shooting for 1 million Martians. hE invited industry to join the Mars effort, which will represent a $10 billion investment.

Musk described in detail his plans to launch a monster-size rocket from the same launch pad at Kennedy Space Center from which the Apollo astronauts departed for the lunar surface in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The rocket would hoist a spaceship big enough to carry 100 to 200 people to Mars, a trip lasting several months, quicker with nuclear propulsion.