SpaceX has shifted to prioritising a “self-growing city” on the Moon rather than sending humans to Mars as had been the company’s foremost ambition, according to founder Elon Musk.
In a post on his social media platform, X, Mr Musk said that SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a “self-growing city” on the Moon, because it is his belief that SpaceX can “potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years”.
SpaceX has long been associated with ambitious plans for putting humans on Mars, Mr Musk outlining as early as 2012 his desire to see a colony of up to 80,000 people living on the Red Planet.
He has also expressed the belief that humans could put boots on Mars by the 2020s, but has since extended the timelines involved.
Mr Musk said that despite the shift in focus, the mission of SpaceX “remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars”.
“It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six month trip time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2 day trip time). This means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city,” he wrote on X.
The SpaceX CEO said that the company will still “strive” to build a city on Mars and “begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years”.
“But the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster,” he said.
In response to comments about the change in priorities, Mr Musk said that the Moon “would establish a foothold beyond Earth quickly, to protect life against risk of a natural or manmade disaster on Earth”.
SpaceX is not the only organisation refocusing on the Moon after previously touting Mars missions.
US President Donald Trump issued an executive order late last year concerning American space policy, in which a stated goal is “returning Americans to the Moon by 2028 through the Artemis Program”.
NASA’s Artemis Program is the United States’ latest national lunar exploration programme, the current stage of which (Artemis II) intends to fly four people around the Moon early this year.
If successful, it will represent the furthest humans have ever travelled from Earth, potentially breaking the 1970 record set by NASA mission Apollo 13.
After a previous delay, the Artemis II mission was due to launch as early as February 8 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
However, following a rehearsal, the space agency concluded that the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket wasn’t ready to fly and postponed the launch until March 6 at the earliest.
Artemis III, planned for launch mid-2027, would see humans return to the surface of the Moon for the first time since 1972, the mission description stating:
“Over the course of about 30 days, the Artemis III astronauts will travel to lunar orbit, where two crew members will descend to the surface and spend approximately a week near the South Pole of the Moon conducting new science before returning to lunar orbit to join their crew for the journey back to Earth.”