Elon Musk unveils SpaceX’s Moon-first strategy with ‘self growing lunar city’

Elon Musk has revealed the Moon-first strategy with his first initiative to build a “self growing city on Moon”, aiming to achieve it in less than 10 years.

The decision comes as the 54-year-old tech billionaire announced the plans to shift SpaceX’s focus away from Mars. However, it does not mean that he is not interested in pursuing his long-held ambition of a city on Mars.

Taking to X, the CEO of SpaceX said, “He still intends to establish a city on Mars within 5-7 years. But overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster.”

“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 added.

Talking about the mission of SpaceX, Musk clarified that its mission will remain the same: to extend consciousness and life to the stars and other planets, making humans a multi-planetary civilization.

According to the founder of xAI, travelling to the Moon is easy and effective, comparable to Mars. For instance, humans can only travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months. On the contrary, it is possible to launch to the Moon every 10 days, because the Moon orbits the Earth, offering a much more flexible window.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, SpaceX aims to target March 2027 for an uncrewed lunar landing.

China is also rapidly advancing to tighten its grip on the lunar surface in a competitive space race with the US.

Last year, Chinese scientists developed a revolutionary machine, working as a 3D printer powered by concentrated sunlight. The device is successfully known to turn lunar soil into strong construction bricks.

The development has taken China closer to building the Moon base.

Elon Musk has repeatedly strived hard to mark dominance on space, exoplanets, and the stars. Earlier this week, SpaceX acquired xAI in a landmark merger, aiming to initiate a new joint venture and accelerate artificial intelligence-powered innovation.

The significant merger will help Musk to establish AI-powered data centres in orbits, slashing operational costs and resolving cooling and energy-based bottlenecks.