"Elon Musk took to X to proclaim that SpaceX would focus on building out a base on the moon before sending humans to Mars. And Musk was careful to couch his announcement in a way that didn't make it sound like a surprise. 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 wrote in his post."
"On the face of it, Musk's comment appeared to upend SpaceX's original mission: to create a self-sustaining human settlement on the Red Planet. It also appears to delay an uncrewed mission to Mars that Musk said the company would conduct this year with SpaceX's new gargantuan Starship rocket, designed to carry cargo and eventually people to deep space. But the truth is that there was virtually no way that SpaceX would get to Mars this year, certainly with Starship."
SpaceX will shift emphasis toward constructing a self-growing lunar base that Musk says could be achieved in under ten years, while Mars settlement would take 20+ years. A planned uncrewed Starship mission to Mars is effectively delayed as Starship remains under development and has experienced unplanned explosions on the ground and in flight. Planetary alignment windows to Mars occur every two years, limiting launch opportunities. Musk has increasingly signaled a moon focus tied to a vision of launching massive data centers and data-center satellites from the moon to support complex AI computing, financed by a large IPO.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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