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SpaceX's Mars Plans Hit a Pothole. Up Next: the Moon?

Elon Musk speaks at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Washington, D.C. on July 19, 2017.

Aaron Bernstein/Reuters

It’s been less than a year since Elon Musk announced his plans to settle humans on Mars during a talk in Guadalajara, Mexico. On stage at the International Astronautical Congress, the billionaire invoked the lore of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Battlestar Galactica while describing a massive passenger ship loaded with the essentials—you know, like a movie theater and a restaurant. SpaceX hoped to launch these breezy cruises to the red planet in the early 2030s.

Plot twist: Musk's original vision is no longer canon in his universe. On Wednesday, Musk took questions during a keynote discussion at the InternationalSpace Station R&D conference in Washington, DC. In between dad jokes about tunnel digging, a staple artificial intelligence threat assessment, and a spirited attempt to unpack the potential for interplanetary war, he candidly revealed a series of obstacles for SpaceX and its plan to build a city on Mars. SpaceX is rebooting its colonization plan, and may pivot to focus on a moon base that would aid that effort.

The Hawthorne, California-based spaceflight company has spent years touting propulsive landing technology for the next version of its Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX expected to equip the Dragon V2, rated for crew and cargo, with four small SuperDraco engines and deployable landing legs to allow for a guided surface touchdown—first on the Earth’s surface, and then, maybe, on Mars. SpaceX was confident