Elon Musk stated on Sunday that SpaceX is now prioritizing the construction of a self sufficient city on the moon, a goal he thinks might be accomplished in the upcoming ten years. It seems that Elon Musk’s dream of settling Mars has been surpassed by a more realistic and closer objective : putting people on the moon.
According to news agency Reuters, he stated that although the business still intends to work on his long held goal of building a metropolis on Mars over the next five to seven years, colonizing the Moon first is a quicker and more sensible move to safeguard humanity’s future.
Musk’s remarks are in line with a recent report that claims SpaceX has informed investors that it will prioritize Moon missions above Mars missions. According to the report, the corporation plans to put an uncrewed person on the Moon by March 2027. Musk had previously stated that by the end of 2026, a human free Mars mission might be possible.
As China and the United States vie to send people to the moon this decade, there is a movement to go back there. Since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972, no human has set foot on the moon.
Musk said last week that SpaceX has made a significant acquisition of his artificial intelligence startup, xAI. As the need for AI processing increases, proponents think this move might help SpaceX build data centers in space, which Musk claims utilize less energy than those on Earth.
According to the source, SpaceX is also thinking about going public later this year, which could raise as much as $50 billion and become the largest IPO ever.
Despite having a $4 billion contract under NASA’s Artemis program to use its Starship rocket to put astronauts on the moon, Musk stated that NASA will account for less than 5% of SpaceX’s earnings this year. He went on to say that SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet business accounts for the majority of its revenue.
SpaceX has a nearly $3 billion contract to create their lunar lander, or the vehicle that will transport the crew from their spacecraft down to the moon’s surface, while NASA has built the rocket and spacecraft intended to send astronauts off Earth and to the lunar vicinity.
The largest spacecraft and rocket system ever constructed, the Starship system, which Musk claims is specifically designed to transport humans to Mars, will be used by SpaceX for the mission.
In addition to being incredibly ambitious, Starship has also generated controversy for its involvement in NASA’s moon program.
Last year, SpaceX was criticized by Sean Duffy, Trump’s secretary of transportation who also briefly held the position of acting NASA administrator. Duffy warned that SpaceX did not seem to be on track to have its lunar lander ready in time for NASA’s moon landing mission as the space agency competes with China’s lunar exploration program.
Musk’s claim that SpaceX will now concentrate on lunar exploration coincides with NASA preparing to launch Artemis II, the program’s first crewed mission.
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As a prelude to the more involved Artemis III landing mission, that mission is planned to send four astronauts on a journey that will circle the moon without making a landing. Artemis II is scheduled to launch as soon as March.
