Mars loses priority. The era of the lunar city has come

Of course, this does not mean that Elon Musk has given up on conquering Mars. However, this one received a lower priority. According to the Billionaire, the Moon is a much quicker goal to achieve and an easier way to ensure the safety of humanity – although he did not specify what this safety would involve in the context of the Moon. Thus, it plans to create a self-developing city on our natural satellite.

What does this term mean? Well, we don’t know. It can be speculated that this may be related to the use of lunar regolith to build urban structures thanks to 3D printing, which was proposed several years ago as a method of building a colony on the Silver Globe. However, as I have already emphasized, these are just speculations.

Another quite clear declaration is that such a city would be built in about 10 years. However, it is worth emphasizing that this is not about 2036, but rather 10 years after the proverbial shovel was put into the lunar investment. Although, of course, there can be no mention of a shovel in such a case.

But why the Moon and not Mars? It’s quite simple: the Moon is much easier to get to, and potential missions can be sent almost continuously. In the case of Mars, you have to wait until it and the Earth are relatively close to each other, that is, only during the Mars opposition, which occurs on average every 26 months. The moon has no such limitations.

Another advantage of the Silver Globe is much faster communication, as well as the possibility of returning the crew or the population of such a city to Earth. In the case of the Martian colony, SpaceX’s plans assume a one-way flight only.

Of course, the Moon also has problems: a lunar day may last about 15 days, and the lack of atmosphere will translate into more effective energy production from photovoltaic panels, but the night is equally long, which would require the creation of an energy installation on the scale of the entire satellite.

Another problem is regolith, whose structure resembles finely ground asbestos. So it is small, sharp and difficult to stop.

But why this change of plans? Well, the US government wants to build a lunar colony as part of the Artemis project. Here we can speculate that SpaceX’s shares in it are smaller than Elon Musk would expect. Focusing on the city could provide an excuse to tighten cooperation with NASA, which would mean greater influence for Elon Musk’s company.

Another issue is the postponement of Martian plans. Musk previously announced that in 2026 his company would organize an unmanned mission to Mars. The problem is that we are already in 2026. The announcement of a change in plans will allow the billionaire not to fulfill this promise and at the same time go out of his way. Let us remember that this is not a hard project or SpaceX’s position, but one of many declarations by Elon Musk. As you can see, for now we are dealing with a change of narrative rather than a ready-made technological plan.