Musk Says He Plans to Build Factories on the Moon
Future factory site? (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)
Elon Musk’s ambitions in space are taking a new turn, with a renewed focus on the Moon. Speaking to xAI staff on Tuesday, Musk said the company—now merged with SpaceX—“has to go to the moon” to build a lunar factory capable of producing AI satellites and even a massive electromagnetic “mass driver” to launch them into space.
According to reporting from the New York Times, Musk told employees during an all-hands meeting that a Moon-based production hub could supply enormous computing power to xAI’s systems and give the company an edge over competitors. He described the Moon as a stepping stone: first establishing a “self-sustaining city” there, then expanding to Mars, and eventually reaching other star systems in the search for alien life.
Musk’s idea includes constructing what he called a “mass driver”—an electromagnetic catapult concept often found in science fiction. As described by Futurism, it would function like a coilgun designed to launch payloads rather than projectiles. On Sunday, Musk said SpaceX’s long-held goal of building a city on Mars had been placed on the back burner in favor of developing a “self-growing city on the Moon.”
In a recent blog post announcing the SpaceX-xAI merger, Musk outlined plans for a “constellation of a million satellites that operate as orbital data centers.” He suggested that factories on the Moon could use lunar resources to manufacture satellites and deploy them deeper into space.
Musk did not provide details on how such a facility would be constructed. Writing for Engadget, Steve Dent noted the many challenges involved, pointing out that initial steps would include orbiting and landing on the Moon, followed by building a colony and then a factory. All of this, he wrote, would require numerous crewed and uncrewed missions. Dent also observed that humans have not returned to the Moon in more than 50 years, and no off-world colony or factory has ever been built.
Former SpaceX executives told the Times that the Moon had not previously been a central focus for the company. As recently as last year, Musk himself described lunar missions as a “distraction” from Mars.
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