SPACEX NOW FOCUSED ON BUILDING ‘SELF-GROWING CITY’ ON THE MOON, MUSK REVEALS
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By: Sefiu Ajape
Tech billionaire and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has revealed that the company has shifted its primary focus to constructing a “self-growing city” on the Moon, a project he said could be realized in less than 10 years.
Musk shared the update in a statement on his X handle on Monday.
He explained that lunar missions allow for much faster development cycles than expeditions to Mars. According to Musk, launches to the Moon can take place roughly every 10 days with a two-day travel time, whereas missions to Mars are only feasible once every 26 months and require about six months to complete.
He wrote, “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.”
Musk emphasized that the company’s broader mission remains unchanged, noting, “The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars.”
He cited planetary alignment as a major logistical limitation for Mars missions.
“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.”
Despite prioritizing the Moon, Musk stressed that SpaceX has not abandoned its Mars ambitions.
“That said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city 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.”
SpaceX’s Mars plans have long faced skepticism, with critics arguing that Musk’s timelines are overly ambitious. Over the years, he has repeatedly revised projections for human missions to the Red Planet.
In 2016, Musk predicted humans could reach Mars as early as 2024, contingent on funding and technical readiness. This followed his 2011 statement to The Wall Street Journal that SpaceX astronauts could reach Mars in “best case, 10 years; worst case, 15 to 20 years.”
The renewed focus on the Moon comes amid a shift in U.S. space policy under the Trump administration. In an executive order issued late last year, President Donald Trump declared that the U.S. aims to return astronauts to the Moon by 2028 under NASA’s Artemis programme, for which SpaceX is a key contractor.
The directive marked a departure from Trump’s earlier plan to send Americans to Mars within his four-year term.
NASA currently targets a mid-2027 return to the Moon’s surface as part of the Artemis 3 mission, although the timeline has been delayed multiple times. Experts caution that further delays remain possible, pointing to the unfinished lunar lander being developed by SpaceX.
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