WASHINGTON \u2014 A little more than a year after dismissing the moon as a \u201cdistraction,\u201d Elon Musk says SpaceX will focus on lunar settlement before sending humans to Mars.<\/p>\n
In a social media post<\/a> Feb. 8, Musk said SpaceX was deferring its long-held ambitions of establishing a permanent human presence on Mars, instead devoting resources to creating a \u201cself-growing city\u201d on the moon.<\/p>\n \u201cFor 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-plus years,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Neither Musk nor SpaceX has discussed detailed plans for such a settlement on the moon. The company has instead long been associated with establishing a large-scale human presence on Mars using the Starship vehicle SpaceX is developing.<\/p>\n \u201cProgress is measured by the timeline to establishing a self-sustaining civilization on Mars,\u201d Musk said in a presentation<\/a> last May at SpaceX\u2019s Starbase facility in Texas, where Starship vehicles are built and launched.<\/p>\n In that presentation, Musk discussed Starship development as a means to create a large-scale human settlement on Mars that would require thousands of launches. \u201cEvery roughly two years we are dramatically increasing the number of ships that go to Mars,\u201d he said, referring to launch windows that open about every two years, \u201cand ultimately try to get to a thousand or two thousand ships per Mars rendezvous.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the plan outlined in that speech, missions could begin with the next Mars launch window, opening in late 2026. \u201cWe\u2019ll try to make that opportunity if we get lucky,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we probably have a 50-50 chance right now because we\u2019ve got to figure out orbital refilling in order to have enough capability to go to Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n SpaceX has yet to demonstrate in-space propellant transfer, a capability critical not only for Mars missions but also for lunar missions, including the lunar lander version of Starship SpaceX is developing for NASA\u2019s Human Landing System program. There was widespread industry skepticism that SpaceX would be ready to carry out a Mars mission by the end of this year, and Musk himself recently had been increasingly doubtful a Mars mission could launch this year.<\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 6 that SpaceX had abandoned plans for a Mars mission in 2026<\/a>, instead turning its attention to an uncrewed lunar landing demonstration as soon as March 2027.<\/p>\n In his social media post, Musk said focusing on the moon allows for faster development than Mars.<\/p>\n \u201cIt 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 (two-day trip time),\u201d he wrote. \u201cThis means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city.\u201d<\/p>\n While Musk has long been interested in human missions to Mars, his interest in the moon has waxed and waned over the years. \u201cIf you want to get the public really fired up, you\u2019ve got to have a base on the moon,\u201d he said in a July 2017 speech.<\/p>\n Later that year, he unveiled updated designs for his BFR rocket \u00a0\u2014 a precursor to Starship \u2014 that included a concept for a lunar base he called Moon Base Alpha. \u201cIt\u2019s 2017. I mean, we should have a lunar base by now,\u201d he said at the International Astronautical Congress.<\/p>\n By early last year, however, Musk was focused almost exclusively on Mars. \u201cNo, we\u2019re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction,\u201d he wrote in a January 2025 social media post<\/a>, responding to a proposal to use liquid oxygen produced on the moon to fuel Starship missions to Mars.<\/p>\n That stance mirrored early policy signals from the second Trump administration that appeared to emphasize Mars exploration at the expense of lunar programs. Those included proposals to end the Space Launch System and Orion programs after Artemis 3, along with NASA budget requests for Mars exploration technologies and capabilities.<\/p>\n Congress rejected efforts to end SLS and Orion, as well as the lunar Gateway. An executive order issued by President Trump in December<\/a> called for a human return to the moon by 2028 and the establishment of the first elements of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030.<\/p>\n At the same time, SpaceX and Musk have shown growing interest in orbital data centers, an effort that could compete for resources with Mars ambitions. SpaceX has filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission for up to 1 million satellites to serve as orbital data centers<\/a>. The company also announced Feb. 2 that it would acquire Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence company, xAI,<\/a> in a deal reportedly valuing the combined company at $1.25 trillion.<\/p>\n Musk said he remains interested in sending humans to Mars, but as a secondary objective to lunar settlement.<\/p>\n \u201cThat said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about five to seven years,\u201d he wrote, \u201cbut the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization, and the Moon is faster.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 A little more than a year after dismissing the moon as a \u201cdistraction,\u201d Elon Musk says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[11,196,7042,79,722,193,1513,1514],"class_list":{"0":"post-459811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-elon-musk","9":"tag-mars","10":"tag-moon","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-sn","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-spacex","15":"tag-starship"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}