Lunar Cold War: Musk puts SpaceX in direct race with China’s moon base

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has dramatically shifted its focus from Mars to the Moon, announcing plans to build a “self-growing city” on the lunar surface within the next decade. Musk justifies this pivot by emphasizing the Moon’s proximity to Earth, which offers a safer and more practical environment for establishing a permanent human presence compared to the distant and logistically challenging Mars. The Moon could serve as a critical outpost for humanity’s survival, providing a testing ground for technologies and resources such as Helium-3 for fusion energy and water ice for fuel, potentially transforming it into a key economic hub in space. This announcement intensifies the geopolitical competition in space, particularly between the U.S. and China. China’s “Tiangong Kaiwu” program, in collaboration with Russia and other nations, aims to establish an International Lunar Research Station by 2035, directly competing with SpaceX’s ambitions. However, experts caution that the concept of a “self-growing city” is highly ambitious, as