Elon Musk Shifts SpaceX’s Priority Settlement Focus from Mars to the Moon
In a post on X on Sunday (Feb. 8), Musk wrote that SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, given shorter time-frame vs. Mars settlement.
(The Moon) Last night – on Sunday (Feb. 8) evening – Elon Musk posted on his X account that SpaceX has shifted its focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, from its previous focus on Mars, given “we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years.”
“The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars,” reads Musks’s post.
Musk explained that it is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six month trip time), whereas launches to the Moon can take place every 10 days (2 day trip time); thus, according to Musk, SpaceX can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city.
Image of Elon Musk speaking on April 30, 2015 in Hawthorne, California courtesy of Ringo H.W. Chiu / AP via NBC News.
This morning (Feb. 9), Musk clarified that while [the development of a Mars city] will start in 5 or 6 years, and will be done in parallel with the Moon, development of the Moon will be SpaceX’s initial focus.
