Musk’s lunar city plan supercharges America’s return to the moon

Recently, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made a history-changing announcement on his social media platform X. It read: “For those unaware, SpaceX is already focused on building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can probably achieve this in less than 10 years, while Mars will take more than 20 years.”

“A trip to Mars is only possible when the planets align every 26 months (six-month travel time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2-day travel time),” Musk explained. “This means we can iterate much faster to complete a lunar city than a Mars city.”

He concluded by affirming that he had not given up on Mars: “SpaceX will also try to build a Martian city and start doing so in about five to seven years, but the overriding priority is to quickly secure civilization and the future of the Moon.”

The announcement wasn’t a complete surprise to those paying attention. Besides being more accessible than Mars, the Moon offers SpaceX a way to make more money as a source of raw material for Musk’s proposed orbiting AI data centers. The data centers will be powered 24/7 with solar panels.

Data centers, instead of being launched from Earth, will be built on the Moon and launched into Earth orbit by an electromagnetic mass driver. Due to the Moon’s low gravity and scaled costs in electricity, launch costs would be very low.

But the initial outlay will be huge. SpaceX will have to launch mining and construction equipment, not to mention the technology lunar settlers will need to survive from Earth to the moon. Of course, several Optimus robots will be included in the initial cargo to help with construction. Of course, Musk will use as many local materials as possible to build his lunar city.

Musk is the richest man on the planet and will be even richer when SpaceX goes through its IPO later this year. If anyone can build a moon settlement, he can. Whether he can do it within 10 years is another question.

In addition to providing a means to build orbital AI data centers, Musk’s pivot to the moon offers several other benefits. If SpaceX builds “Moon Base Alpha,” which Musk called after the setting of the 1970s science fiction show, with mining and manufacturing infrastructure and a human driver, it will be able to provide services to other customers by providing sources of raw and refined materials. A lunar city could usher in a space-based industrial revolution.

Musk’s pivot to the Moon keeps SpaceX in line with the Artemis program’s goals: first the Moon and then Mars. NASA could rent space in the SpaceX lunar city for its researchers and scientists at a lower cost than building it itself.

Ironically, the decision to build a lunar city before going to Mars may make it easier later on in the long run. Deep craters at the lunar poles contain water ice that can be refined into oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen can be combined with carbon dioxide to form methane, which is used as fuel by the SpaceX Starship. The process is called the Sabatier reaction.

According to Phys.org, deep craters at the Moon’s poles also trap frozen carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide left by astronauts could be another source. In addition, the first starships to Mars could lift their fuel up near the moon before heading to the Red Planet, reducing the cost and complexity of interplanetary travel.

One final benefit of Musk’s pivot to the moon will be to companies working on lunar mining and manufacturing technologies. Blue Origin, a rival to SpaceX, is working on what it calls Blue Alchemist, which will separate the lunar regolith into materials such as oxygen, silicon, iron and aluminum. Silicon will be used to make solar cells.

Even before the days of the Apollo program, people dreamed of settling on the moon. NASA has twice failed, due to politics, to launch one. Ironically, an immigrant from South Africa can take the form of a dream.

Mark R. Whittington, a frequent writer on space policy, has published a study of the politics of space exploration entitled “Why is it so difficult to return to the moon?“as well as”Moon, Mars and beyond“And, recently, “Why is America going back to the moon?“He blogged Curmudgeons corner.

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