Elon Musk has announced that he is putting his elaborate Mars plans on hold, in order to concentrate on building a “self-growing city” on the Moon within the decade. The SpaceX billionaire may have been given a nudge by the White House, which sees beating China to the Moon as one of the key issues on its agenda. Musk founded SpaceX specifically in order to launch a mission to Mars.
While he indicated that transport to the Moon would be more frequent than to Mars, maintaining a “city” there would, therefore, be much easier. He said he was also worried that a “man-made or natural” catastrophe could prevent access to Mars, causing a Mars colony to die out. That would be less likely on the Moon, which would become “self-growing” within a decade, so he claims. But like all of Musk’s “predictions,” this, too, must be taken with a grain of salt. The fact of the matter is that the White House is focused on its race against China to the Moon, and that is where government funding will be going, not to a Mars “boondoggle.”
