Elon Musk’s Space X has redirected its primary efforts from colonising Mars to creating a self-growing city on the moon.
Musk explained the strategic shift in an X post on Sunday.
“For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years,” the Space X CEO wrote.
He emphasised that the company’s overarching mission, which is to “extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars”, remains unchanged, but the Moon offers a quicker path to securing humanity’s future.
Explaining practical reasons for the change, Musk said travel to Mars is constrained by planetary alignments, allowing launches only every 26 months with a six-month journey, while missions to the Moon can occur every 10 days with just a two-day trip.
“This means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city,” he added.
The world’s richest person described the Moon priority as “the overriding priority” for safeguarding civilisation.
Despite the focus on the Moon, SpaceX is not abandoning its Mars ambitions entirely.
Musk stated that the company will “strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years.”
This includes plans for an uncrewed Starship landing on Mars targeted for late 2026, aligning with ongoing development of the Starship system.
Founded by Musk in 2002, SpaceX has long positioned Mars colonisation as its ultimate goal, with previous timelines suggesting crewed missions as early as the mid-2020s.
