Elon Musk unveils bombshell new plan to build ‘self-growing city’ on the Moon | World | News
Musk is the richest man in the world (Image: Getty)
Elon Musk plans to start building a “self-growing city” on the Moon in less than a decade.
The world’s richest man also said he would “strive” to build on Mars and would start in as little as five years.
The intergalactic boast from the Tesla founder, whose fortune is estimated at £600bn, comes as NASA prepares to launch Artemis II next month.
The test flight will demonstrate what would be required for a crewed mission to land on the Moon. However, Musk’s goals for the SpaceX project are in a different universe.
But Musk’s celestial ambition trumps this.
He said: “For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted its focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we could potentially achieve this in less than 10 years, whereas on Mars this would take over 20 years.
“SpaceX’s mission remains the same: to spread our consciousness and life as we know it to the stars.
“Traveling to Mars is only possible when the planets align every 26 months (six months travel time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2 days travel time). This means we can iterate to complete a Moon city much faster than a Mars city.
“However, SpaceX will also attempt to build a Mars city and will begin to do so in approximately 5 to 7 years, but the top priority is to secure the future of civilization and the Moon is faster.”
Intergalactic ambition: Musk to launch missions from SpaceX Starbase in Texas (Image: Getty)
SpaceX, a private American aerospace and artificial intelligence company based in Starbase, Texas, told investors it will prioritize going to the moon and then try a trip to Mars.
The unmanned lunar landing is planned for March 2027.
The United States faces intense competition from China in the race to return humans to the lunar surface; This is something that hasn’t happened since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Last week, US President Musk Donald TrumpTo cut excessive regulations and spending within the federal government, his right-hand man at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency announced that SpaceX was acquiring xAI, the artificial intelligence company he also leads, in a deal that values the rocket and satellite company at $1 trillion ($1.4 trillion) and its AI hardware at $250 billion ($355.7 billion).
Proponents of the move see it as a way for SpaceX to support its plans for space-based data centers; Mr Musk sees it as more energy efficient than terrestrial facilities, as demand for computing power increases with the development of artificial intelligence.
Four astronauts were selected for NASA’s Artemis II mission: Commander Reid Wiseman (NASA), pilot Victor Glover (NASA), mission specialist Christina Koch (NASA), and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency).
If Artemis II is successful, the next mission will be Artemis III, the first manned lunar landing mission since the Apollo era.
NASA aims to carry out this approximately 30-day mission to land astronauts at the south pole of the Moon by 2028.
