Musk eyes Moon colony, puts Mars on the back seat

SpaceX is shifting its focus from Mars to the moon. The privately-held space company is working on plans to build a city on the moon, the company’s founder, billionaire Elon Musk, said on social media Sunday. His ambition of one day settling Mars is taking a back seat while he focuses on a nearer and more achievable goal, Musk said. He estimated the lunar goal can be completed in less than 10 years, while a settlement on Mars would take more than 20 years to realize.

Musk emphasized that despite the shift, SpaceX’s big-picture mission to extend life into the stars remains the same. The overriding priority is to secure the future of civilization in space, and the moon is the faster option, he said. Musk has regularly pushed back his estimated timeline for Mars.

Isn’t NASA working on going to the moon? NASA is working to get astronauts to the moon in 2027 under the Artemis program. SpaceX in 2021 won a contract to be part of the program. Astronauts haven’t walked on the moon since the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. SpaceX has received a number of other contracts from NASA and the U.S. Defense Department.

Dig deeper: Read my report on SpaceX’s efforts to bar Russian drones from using its Starlink satellite internet system.