Elon Musk Announces NASA’s Lunar Ambitions: ‘We’re headed straight for Mars’

Although SpaceX founder Elon Musk is known for his outspokenness and controversial comments on his social media platform X, he has been somewhat tight-lipped when it comes to US space policy in recent years.

For example, he never criticized NASA or its overall mission to return humans to the moon with the Artemis program. Instead, Musk, who has long favored Mars as a human destination, has been a team player when it comes to the space agency’s moon-focused plans.

This is understandable from a financial point of view, as SpaceX has contracts worth billions of dollars to not only build the Human Landing System as part of the Artemis program but also to provide food, cargo, and other transportation services to the planned orbiting Lunar Gateway. month.

But privately, Musk has been critical of NASA’s plans, suggesting that the Artemis program is too slow and too reliant on contractors looking for government contracts and costs and not interested in delivering results.

It is silent on the policy

In the past 10 days, Musk has begun airing some of these private thoughts publicly. On Christmas Day, for example, Musk wrote to X, “The creation of Artemis has been extremely unsuccessful, as it is a program to increase operations, not a program to increase results. Something completely new is needed.”

Then, on Thursday evening, he added: “No, we’re going straight to Mars. The moon is a distraction.”

These are direct statements that directly conflict with NASA’s plans to send a series of manned missions to the south side of the moon later this decade and establish a sustainable base for operations there through the Artemis program.

It would be one thing if Musk expressed his opinion as a private citizen. But since playing a key role in the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States last year, Musk has taken on an important advisory role for the incoming administration. He was also responsible for the expected nomination of independent astronaut Jared Isaacman to be the next administrator of NASA. Although Musk does not direct US space policy, he certainly has a meaningful say in what happens.

So What Does This Mean for Artemis?

The fate of Artemis is an important question not only for NASA but for the US commercial industry, the European Space Agency, and other international partners who have supported the return of humans to the moon. With Artemis, the United States is competing with China to establish a viable presence on the surface of the moon.

Based on interviews with people involved in developing the Trump administration’s local policy, I can make an educated guess about how to interpret Musk’s comments. None of these people, for example, would dispute Musk’s assertion that “the Artemis Architecture is not very efficient” and that some changes are warranted.

As mentioned, the Artemis program will probably not go away. After all, it was the first Trump administration that established this program almost five years ago. However, it may well be remembered that the first Trump White House pushed for very important changes, including “major course corrections” at NASA.

“I’m asking NASA to adopt new policies and adopt a new vision,” former vice president Mike Pence said in May 2019. “If our current contractors can’t accomplish this goal, we’ll find someone who can.” (Speaking of the vice president, it is unlikely that the National Space Council will be reconstituted under JD Vance).