#38
Will SpaceX go to the Moon / build a Moon base?
Interviews
3
Answers
6
X posts
5
Span
2023 to 2026
First asked Oct 5, 2023, most recently Jul 8, 2026. Excerpts below are from machine transcripts with filler words (um, uh, you know) and stutters removed; … marks a cut. They are not checked word for word, so use the link to hear the exact words, or the transcript link for the raw text. Timestamps: 1 cross-checked against YouTube captions, 5 from the archive transcript only. X has no link-to-time option, so X links open at the start.
How the answer evolved · oldest first
Oct 5, 2023 · International Astronautical Congress · asked by Interviewer
Q: And can you use that same suit on the moon and Mars and for other missions?
Yeah. So SpaceX spacesuit, we do expect to evolve that to be something that can be an EVA suit on the ground, on the moon and Mars. And it started off initially as really just a pressure suit just in case there's an emergency depression pressurization of the spacecraft. So it was basically like a self contained life support system in suit form and obviously we'll retain that capability. But now for an upcoming …
Oct 5, 2023 · International Astronautical Congress · asked by Interviewer
Q: Maybe Moon or Mars? Any ideas for cybertruck on the moon?
It would look cool, that's for sure. The nice thing about electric cars is they obviously do not require oxygen to. They're not combustion cars, so they don't have to ingest oxygen from the ambient atmosphere. So yeah, I think Tesla could easily make a car that like a cybertruck lunar variant, just get the moon option package. So yeah, I mean the reason that we launched the car, the reason we launched the car heavy, …
Jun 22, 2024 · First Look Inside SpaceX's Starfactory with Elon Musk · asked by Tim Dodd
Q: But will it be all docking up to a, to like a depot? Is that kind of the plan?
It depends on how quickly you want to launch. So if you're going to the moon, I don't know, I don't think you need a depot. I think you just send a ship up and send tankers immediately. Yeah. And your boil off rate will not be too bad. Okay, so now for the moon. You'd want to have a dedicated Earth orbit to moon system because you don't need a heat shield, right? Well, I mean, shield the break, I suppose. Well, …
Jul 8, 2026 · The Sean Hannity Show: Interviewed by Gov. Greg Abbott · asked by Greg Abbott
Q: But what do you see SpaceX doing 10 years from now?
Well, hopefully we've established a base on the moon, so. And not just a base with a small number of people, but in 10 years, hopefully we've enabled thousands, if not tens of thousands of people to go to the Moon, which makes it. Which it's going to. It's going to seem like a pretty outrageous number given that there's only about a dozen or so people that have been to the Moon so far. But our starship system is …
Jul 8, 2026 · The Sean Hannity Show: Interviewed by Gov. Greg Abbott · asked by Greg Abbott
Q: 5, 10 years? More or less?
Yeah. I think we'll have landed up first people on the Moon in less than five years. If things go well, we might be able to put the first astronauts on the moon in two to three years and then expand rapidly from there so that in, say, 10 years from now, there are thousands of people on the Moon. And let's just go ahead. We want to ultimately make it such that anyone who wants to go to the Moon, like any member of …
Jul 8, 2026 · The Sean Hannity Show: Interviewed by Gov. Greg Abbott · asked by Greg Abbott
Q: So when you are talking 10 years from now, people are going to the Moon, will they be staying there for weeks, months, years? What would it be like?
Yes, I think it's up to the person. They may wish to go for a vacation on the Moon, or they may wish to move permanently to the Moon, depending on the individual. But I think we want to, it would be very cool to have a full blown self sustaining city on the moon, like an actual metropolis on the moon. So the goal is, a way to think about it is we want to make the things that people see in science fiction, not …
In his own posts on X
@elonmusk · Jan 19, 2024
@SciGuySpace His plan makes no sense. Just a worse version of Apollo. Starship will enable a permanently occupied moon base and even a city on the moon one day.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Feb 8, 2026
For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years. The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars. It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six month trip time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2 day trip time). This means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city. That said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Feb 9, 2026
@farzyness The priority shift is because I’m worried that a natural or manmade catastrophe stops the resupply ships coming from Earth, causing the colony to die out. We can make the Moon city self-growing in less than 10 years, but Mars will take 20+ years due to the 26 month iteration cycle. That is what matters most. There is also an AI bonus element, but the prime directive must be ensuring the long-term survival of consciousness.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Feb 9, 2026
@wintonARK @SciGuySpace We’re still going to Mars and the timeframe for building a self-growing city there is still about the same at 20 to 30 years. It’s possible that revenue from lunar activities might actually accelerate Mars.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · May 26, 2026
Mostly true. What matters is securing the long-term future of consciousness, both on Earth and other heavenly bodies. We cannot just focus on Earth, because there are irreducible external (eg massive meteor) and internal (eg global nuclear war) cataclysmic risks. The Moon is faster to make self-growing, but is more susceptible to problems on Earth. Mars will take longer to make self-growing, because it is so hard to reach, but is more secure from Earth disasters for that same reason. Both the Moon and Mars should have self-growing civilizations. Making this happen is the prime directive of SpaceX.
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