The richest person on the planet or SpaceX boss Elon Musk just demoted his once‑sacred Mars dream, recasting SpaceX’s mission around a faster, cheaper prize: building a self‑sustaining city on the Moon within a decade.
Musk says SpaceX has “shifted focus” from a near‑term Mars settlement to building a “self‑growing” city on the lunar surface.
Elon Musk claims that a lunar city could be achieved in under 10 years but the Martian city would likely take more than 20 years.
According to report, Launch windows open every 10 days with a two-day transit but every 26 months and a six-month journey to reach Mars.
The pivot aligns with investor briefings and reports of an uncrewed Starship lunar landing target around March 2027.
Musk’s Moon-first shift drops SpaceX squarely into the slipstream of NASA’s Artemis program, which is already counting on Starship as its ride to the lunar surface and eventually a permanent base. Mars isn’t dead — Musk says serious work starts in five to seven years.
The word ‘self-growing city’ may sound good futuristic but the concept is grounded in existing research. It refers to a settlement capable of expanding using it’s local resources rather than relying entirely on supplies from Earth.
But, lunar settlement might raise a question on lunar life support. Air, water, and waste would need to be recycled with near-perfect efficiency with advanced technology. Success here would be a major breakthrough not just for the Moon but for future missions across the solar system too.
As the SpaceX focus on the Moon being shifted, still Elon Musk’s long-term vision towards Martian settlement remains as previously said. Mars missions involve longer travel times, far greater risks with many more advanced science and technology with huge amount of money.
Building sustainable systems closer to Earth could help reduce uncertainties before attempting permanent life on the Red Planet. Musk has long argued that we need to become a multi-planetary to reduce extinction risks if something happens to our plane, which is possible.