Elon Musk: ‘Lunar City’ on the Moon, a Secure Future for Humanity Before Mars

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has announced that the plan to build a city on the moon, which he has called ‘Lunar City’, is a priority goal for securing the future of humanity. According to Musk, the moon provides a closer, faster and more practical route than Mars.

Elon Musk explained on the social media platform X that sending a mission to Mars is only possible every 26 months during planetary alignment and takes about 6 months to get there, while a mission to the moon can be launched every 10 days and the journey is completed in just 2 days. Therefore, building a city on the moon may be possible faster.

Musk clarified that the plan to build a city on Mars has not been abandoned, but it has now become a secondary priority and practical preparations for building a city on Mars will likely begin in 5 to 7 years.

The proposed lunar city will use artificial intelligence, autonomous robots and space data centers, which will receive technical support from Musk's company xAI. The project aims to establish a robust and automated infrastructure on the moon with minimal human intervention.

It should be noted that under the executive order of former US President Donald Trump, the United States aims to return to the moon by 2028 and establish the initial stages of a permanent lunar base by 2030, which also includes a proposal to install a nuclear reactor on the moon. The US Artemis 3 campaign is expected to return astronauts to the moon in 2027, however, this schedule is likely to change further due to delays in the lunar lander under construction by SpaceX.