Elon Musk’s New Priority: A Self-Growing City on the Moon in Under 10 Years

 Elon Musk has long been synonymous with ambitious visions for humanity's future in space, particularly through his company SpaceX. While his ultimate goal has centered on making humanity multi-planetary—starting with Mars—recent developments show a significant strategic pivot toward the Moon. In early 2026, Musk announced that SpaceX is now prioritizing the development of a self-growing, self-sustaining city on the Moon, potentially achievable in less than 10 years.

This shift doesn't abandon Mars but reframes it as a longer-term objective, with lunar efforts taking precedence to secure civilization's future more rapidly.Why the Moon First? Musk's RationaleMusk explained the change in priorities on X (formerly Twitter), highlighting practical advantages over Mars:

• Launch frequency and iteration speed — Missions to the Moon can launch roughly every 10 days, with travel times of about 2 days. In contrast, Mars opportunities align only every 26 months due to planetary positions, with journeys taking around 6 months. This allows far faster testing, learning, and scaling on the Moon.
• Timeline for self-sufficiency — A self-growing lunar city could emerge in under a decade, while a comparable Mars settlement might require 20+ years.
• Civilizational backup — Musk emphasizes the Moon as a faster path to establishing a resilient off-world presence. A catastrophe on Earth could sever supply lines to a distant Mars colony, but a lunar base would be more accessible and iterable.

He reaffirmed that SpaceX's core mission—to extend consciousness and life to the stars—remains unchanged. Mars city construction is still planned to begin in about 5–7 years, and lunar progress could even accelerate Mars efforts through shared technology and revenue.The Role of Starship and NASA's Artemis ProgramAt the heart of these plans is Starship, SpaceX's fully reusable super-heavy launch vehicle. Starship serves dual purposes:

1. As the Human Landing System (HLS) for NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon sustainably.
2. As the foundation for large-scale lunar cargo and crew transport.

Key upcoming milestones include:

• Orbital propellant transfer demonstrations (targeted around mid-2026).
• An uncrewed lunar landing demonstration (potentially by March–June 2027).
• Crewed lunar landings (aiming for 2028 or later under Artemis III/IV).

These steps build toward frequent, high-volume deliveries to the lunar surface—essential for constructing a growing settlement. Musk has described a future where Starship enables "anyone" to travel to the Moon, making it accessible at scale.Beyond Landing: A Self-Growing Lunar CityMusk envisions more than outposts or temporary bases. The "self-growing city" concept involves using local lunar resources (regolith for construction, polar ice for water/oxygen/fuel) to expand autonomously. This could include:

• Industrial facilities, potentially for producing AI satellites or data centers in low-gravity, vacuum conditions.
• Mass drivers (electromagnetic catapults) to launch payloads cheaply into orbit.
• Integration with xAI initiatives for orbital AI compute, leveraging abundant solar energy.

Challenges remain—such as sourcing carbon and hydrogen for fuel and life support—but Musk asserts the Moon has sufficient resources to bootstrap a civilization.Implications for the FutureThis pivot aligns with geopolitical realities, including U.S. efforts to lead lunar exploration amid competition from other nations. It also ties into broader goals like protecting consciousness from Earth-bound risks while accelerating innovation through rapid lunar cycles.Musk's vision is bold: return to the Moon not just to visit, but to stay, build, and grow—paving the way for Mars and beyond. As he put it, the Moon offers the fastest path to a multi-world future.What do you think—will we see a thriving lunar city by the mid-2030s, or is this another ambitious timeline? The stars (and the Moon) are closer than ever.

How has science fiction changed who gets to go to space?

 Science fiction has played an influential role in shaping our perceptions of space exploration, as well as the people who are involved in it. It has contributed to the idea that space travel is not only possible, but also exciting and important.

In early science fiction works, space exploration was often portrayed as the realm of heroic astronauts, typically white men who were portrayed as brave, intelligent, and competent. This reinforced the idea that space travel was only for the privileged few who were deemed worthy of the challenge.

However, as science fiction evolved over the years, the portrayal of space travel and those who embark on it became more diverse. Authors and filmmakers began to include women, people of color, and individuals from various socio-economic backgrounds in their works. This helped to challenge the idea that only a certain type of person was capable of space travel.

Furthermore, science fiction also played a role in inspiring the scientific community to explore more diverse possibilities for space exploration. For example, works like Star Trek and its vision of a multicultural and egalitarian society in space helped to inspire many scientists and engineers to create a more inclusive and diverse space program.

Overall, science fiction has helped to broaden our understanding of who can go to space and what their role in space exploration might be. While there is still much work to be done in terms of creating a truly diverse and inclusive space program, science fiction has played an important role in expanding our imaginations and inspiring us to explore new possibilities.

NASA IS TAKING APPLICATIONS FOR A YEAR-LONG RED PLANET SIMULATION

 

Think you have the stuff to live a year on Mars? Indeed, NASA is allowing you the opportunity to demonstrate it. The space organization is currently taking applications for group individuals to embrace a drawn out reenactment of life on the Red Planet starting in the fall of 2022, and it may very well be the nearest you at any point get to having flat mates on Mars. 

NASA declared last week that, in anticipation of arranged Mars missions that would, in the end, require a group to invest extensive stretches of energy around other people in the world, it's starting a progression of recreations here on Earth to plan for the different difficulties of a genuine Martian journey. The Fall 2022 adaptation of the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) will be the first of three such arranged recreations, all unfurling at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. 

All in all, what would you be able to expect in the event that you join? Each CHAPEA mission will incorporate four "team individuals" who will be alloted to live in a 1,700 square foot living module named "Group Dune Alpha." The 3D printed abiding, planned and worked by ICON, will incorporate four private quarters for the team, alongside living and working space, a space for developing yields, and a combination of "fixed and portable furnishings" to permit the group to rearrange the territory somewhat. 

Once inside, CHAPEA team individuals will be entrusted with various recreations intended to ponder inevitable life Mars, including mimicked spacewalks, research missions, correspondences with NASA Mission Control, learning automated controls, and the sky is the limit from there. They'll likewise be entrusted with reenacted variants of different issues NASA expects long haul Martian space explorers may experience, including correspondence delays, gear breakdowns, and restricted assets. 

As a result of the different difficulties related with the reproductions, NASA isn't simply searching for any person with a can-do demeanor for the CHAPEA missions. The application indicates that the organization needs non-smokers, matured 30-55, with graduate degrees in STEM fields, with something like two years of expert STEM insight as well as "at least 1,000 hours guiding an airplane." So, somely, you still a need a form of the commonplace plan that accompanies being a space explorer one day.