Elon Musk's ambition to one day settle on Mars appears to have been put on the back burner in favor of a much closer and more achievable goal – sending people to live on the Moon.
In a statement, the billionaire said his company SpaceX has now shifted its priorities to building "a self-growing city on the Moon," arguing that this could be achieved in less than a decade, compared to more than 20 years for a similar plan on Mars.
"The top priority is securing the future of civilization, and the Moon is faster," Musk said.
"It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six-month trip duration), while we can set off for the Moon every 10 days (two-day trip duration)," he added.
It's not immediately clear what Musk meant by a "self-growing city" or whether his plans are consistent with a similar lunar plan proposed by NASA.
Musk stated that the company remains committed to building a city on Mars and will begin doing so within about five to seven years.
Recently, the billionaire had said that SpaceX was working to land its first unmanned spacecraft on Mars as early as the end of 2026.
Musk's downgrade of his previous predictions for space travel comes after SpaceX acquired XAI last week, in a move that will merge two of his most ambitious companies into the world's most valuable private firm.
For more than a decade, Musk has made clear his overarching focus on establishing a settlement on Mars, saying that this has been SpaceX's primary goal since the company's founding in 2002.
In speeches given at space conferences and events for SpaceX employees, he has detailed ambitious plans for establishing a permanent human presence on the Red Planet, saying such a step is necessary to ensure a human colony can survive a potential apocalypse.
NASA, by contrast, has been focused on its lunar ambitions, especially since President Donald Trump's first term, when then-Vice President Mike Pence unexpectedly declared that the US would return its astronauts to the moon by 2024.
The bold plan didn't work, and NASA is currently working to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028 - the timeline the agency had been working towards in the Obama era.
This return will mark the first time humans have set foot on the Moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. /Telegraph/
