SpaceX's strategic shift: Musk suspends Mars colonization priority

Musk further clarified SpaceX's space layout rhythm on social platform X: the company has not completely shelved its Mars colonization plan and will still launch preliminary ideas for a Mars city within 5 to 7 years, but it may take more than 20 years to achieve a complete Mars colonization system. He emphasized that the current primary goal is to "ensure the future of human civilization", and the progress of the lunar project will be much faster than that of Mars - compared to the limitation of Mars only having a launch window every 26 months and a one-way journey of 6 months, the launch window of the moon can appear every 10 days, and the journey only takes 2 days. This means that the iterative efficiency of the construction of lunar cities will be greatly improved, which can lay a solid foundation for the company's long-term space migration strategy faster.

The core of the so-called "self growing" city on the moon is to build an extraterrestrial settlement that does not rely excessively on Earth's supplies and can achieve autonomous expansion. It is reported that SpaceX has previously demonstrated the concept of using lunar soil to manufacture building materials, extract oxygen and water, which is highly in line with the vision of "self growth". In the future, this city will achieve continuous expansion similar to cell division through robots and automation systems, gradually forming a self-sufficient ecosystem and becoming the first true prototype of an extraterrestrial settlement in human history. This plan is also in collaboration with NASA's Artemis program. SpaceX won a $4 billion lunar landing project contract with NASA in 2021 to transform the Starship rocket into a lander capable of transporting astronauts to and from the lunar surface, providing support for the Artemis 3 mission (planned to be implemented in 2027). This cooperation will also provide important technical and financial support for the construction of lunar cities.

The advancement of grand plans such as lunar cities and Mars exploration cannot be achieved without sufficient funding and technological support, and Musk's two recent key actions are safeguarding SpaceX's strategic transformation. Earlier reports indicated that SpaceX plans to launch its initial public offering (IPO) later this year, with an estimated fundraising size of up to $50 billion. If successful, it could become one of the largest IPOs in history. Industry insiders analyze that the huge funds raised from this IPO will be focused on accelerating the research and mass production of Starships, which serve as the core carrier of SpaceX's space transportation. Whether it is the transportation of materials required for lunar city construction or future Mars exploration missions, Starships cannot do without their support.

In addition, Musk officially announced last week that SpaceX has completed the acquisition of artificial intelligence startup xAI, with an overall valuation of $1.25 trillion after the merger of the two companies. This acquisition is not just a simple capital integration, but also a key step for Musk to build a "space+AI" ecosystem - the integration of xAI's artificial intelligence technology will provide strong computing power support for SpaceX's space exploration, such as optimizing the launch trajectory of starships, improving the automation operation efficiency of lunar city robots, and assisting in space data processing, achieving deep synergy between space technology and artificial intelligence, and further accelerating the pace of SpaceX's space strategy.