SpaceX Aims To Build Moon City In 10 Years

Gossip about celebrities, including Shah Rukh Khan, owning land on the Moon spread a few years ago. What is the purpose of owning land somewhere they couldn’t even live? Humans have been residing on Earth for approximately 300,000 years, and as far as we know, nowhere else besides Earth has life-supporting conditions. But what if we could live somewhere else? The scientific world is already pursuing this mission. But where? What are the possibilities, the challenges, and the timelines?

Earth’s natural satellite was just a distraction, according to Elon Musk, who has long been focused on extending human life beyond Earth. Over the weekend, he announced that SpaceX is now centring its settlement plans on the moon. Musk has long envisioned a human settlement on Mars; however, SpaceX has not abandoned its long-term ambition of building a city there.

Musk said that SpaceX is now prioritising the Moon over Mars, considering the possibilities of establishing a faster and sustainable presence. In a post on X, Musk claimed SpaceX is focused on building a “self-growing city" on the Moon within the next decade, whereas a similar effort on Mars would take more than 20 years. Efforts to begin constructing a Martian settlement could start within the next five to seven years.

Think about this: you have two cities, one on Mars and one on the Moon. To reach the Moon city in the most fuel-efficient way, you would have to catch a flight every 10 days, with a 2-day trip. To go to the Mars city, you would have to wait 26 days if you miss a flight, and the journey would take six months. Which city would you prefer to live in? Of course, the moon city.

However, is it really that easy to access a moon city as we just imagined?

For a real city, the challenges aren’t just rocket launches but also basic infrastructure like habitats, supply landers, and short-term, self-supporting life systems. NASA’s Artemis 2 program, set to take humans to the Moon’s orbit after a long gap, will be crucial to assess conditions and lay the groundwork for future missions, including Artemis 3 in 2028.

Moreover, various scientific and technical aspects need to be addressed for this herculean task. A Moon city faces severe obstacles: lack of atmosphere and magnetic shielding exposes residents to dangerous radiation, habitats may need to be buried 2 to 3 meters below the surface, lunar dust can damage equipment and health, and low gravity poses unknown long-term biological risks, especially for children. Life support, food production, and energy systems must be flawless despite long lunar nights. Transporting materials is extremely costly, and autonomous construction is still immature. The settlement would remain heavily dependent on Earth. Overall, the technological, biological, economic, and political barriers make permanent lunar habitation an enormous challenge for now.

Still, the world watches to see how SpaceX will tackle these challenges and achieve its ambition. NASA once questioned Starship’s pace and sought competition, but leadership has changed, though rivalry continues as Blue Origin pauses tourism flights to focus on crewed moon missions.