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Tech billionaire and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has disclosed that the company has shifted its primary focus to building a “self-growing city” on the Moon, a goal he said could be achieved in less than 10 years.
Musk made the disclosure in a statement shared on his X handle on Monday.
According to him, lunar missions offer significantly faster development cycles than Mars expeditions. He explained that launches to the Moon can occur roughly every 10 days, with a two-day travel time, compared to Mars missions, which are only feasible once every 26 months and take about six months to complete.
He wrote, “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.
He added that SpaceX’s overarching mission remains unchanged, “The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars.
Musk cited planetary alignment as a major logistical constraint limiting Mars missions.
“It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six month trip time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2 day trip time). This means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city.
Despite the shift in priority, Musk noted that SpaceX has not abandoned its Mars ambitions.
“That said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster.”
SpaceX’s Mars plans have long drawn scepticism, with critics arguing that Musk’s timelines are overly optimistic. Over the years, the billionaire has repeatedly revised projections for human missions to the Red Planet.
In 2016, Musk said humans could travel to Mars as early as 2024, subject to funding and technical readiness. That followed his 2011 prediction to The Wall Street Journal that SpaceX astronauts could reach Mars in “best case, 10 years; worst case, 15 to 20 years.”
The renewed lunar focus comes amid a shift in United States space policy under the Trump administration. In an executive order issued late last year, President Donald Trump said the US aims to return astronauts to the Moon by 2028 under NASA’s Artemis programme, for which SpaceX is a major contractor.
The directive marked a departure from Trump’s earlier goal of sending Americans to Mars within his four-year term.
NASA currently plans to return astronauts to the Moon’s surface in mid-2027 as part of the Artemis 3 mission, although the timeline has been pushed back multiple times. Industry experts say further delays remain possible, citing the unfinished lunar lander being developed by SpaceX
