Elon To Build A Giant Catapult On The Moon, Has He Gone Full Bond Villain?

You’re only just realising?

Ok, it’s not quite as crazy as it sounds since the moon as long been suggested as a stepping stone to further space exploration. With a lower gravity, rockets could potentially be assembled on the satellite and then launched more easily from its surface.

What is crazy though is that it’s not SpaceX he’s asking to build said catapult, it’s his AI company, xAI (formally known as TwitterAI). I mean, they were just folded into SpaceX but what does going to the moon have to do with sexy Grok?

Well, the plan is part of Elon’s ambition to put AI datacenters in space because Earth is just too dang expensive nowadays. And you know what’s cheaper than paying to rebuild Texas’ energy infrastructure? Building a giant AI satellite catapult on the moon, apparently.

Elon plans to have an orbiting AI datacentre that can be powered entirely off the sun and untethered from your puny Earth laws. …I’m sorry, Dr. Evil, who now?

Here’s his statement on Twitter in full:

“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.”

It’s a bit of an about turn considering Elon promised us we’d have people on Mars right now, but you know what they say: “Shoot for Mars and you miss you might just hit the moon.”