"On Sunday Elon Musk said that SpaceX is prioritizing the establishment of a self-growing city on the moon over and above his long stated ambition to settle Mars. In a post on his social media platform X, Musk wrote that a lunar city could be built within the next decade. The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars, Musk wrote."
"Then Musk tweaked the timing again, indicating in 2025 that the company was aiming to launch five uncrewed Starships to Mars this year and that they would be loaded with robots made by his car company Tesla. Importantly, 2026 was considered optimal because where Earth and Mars would be in their respective orbits would cut the journey time to approximately six months. Such ideal alignments occur like clockwork every two years, setting a natural cadence for new Mars missions."
SpaceX announced a strategic shift to prioritize creating a self-growing lunar city, with a claimed possibility of construction within a decade. The stated mission remains to extend consciousness and life beyond Earth. The pivot redirects focus from previous plans to establish human civilization on Mars using Starship. Musk has repeatedly revised Mars timelines, at times suggesting landings as early as 2018 and later shifting target years. Plans once included multiple uncrewed Starships to Mars loaded with Tesla-made robots and taking advantage of favorable orbital alignments around 2026. Starship development has encountered significant technical setbacks and failures that delayed those ambitions.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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