Elon Musk’s Jilting Mars To Build Moon City Could Spark His Downfall

BusinessAerospace & DefenseElon Musk’s Jilting Mars To Build Moon City Could Spark His DownfallByKevin Holden Platt,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Kevin Holden Platt writes on space defense, SpaceX, ISS, Space War I Follow AuthorApr 28, 2026, 03:48pm EDTApr 28, 2026, 04:02pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.SpaceX's founder shocked the space world when he said he's freezing his crusade to begin building a human colony on Mars to instead foster “a self-growing city on the Moon.” Shown here is the 'Transparent Solar System,' including the twin planets Earth and Mars, in an illustration produced by the UK's James Reynolds & Sons around the year 1860. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)SSPL via Getty ImagesElon Musk’s bombshell X post that he is freezing his longstanding crusade to begin building a human colony on Mars after his Starship super-capsule is perfected, in favor of fostering “a self-growing city on the Moon,” is a cosmic mistake, says the world’s top scholar on Mars.Musk’s thunderbolt pivot could decimate his role as future leader of independent interplanetary space treks, predicts Robert Zubrin, the aerospace engineer who created the globe’s foremost masterplan to terraform Mars, or generate an Earth-like biosphere around the Red Planet, turning the orb blue as its original oceans and atmosphere are recovered.Dr. Zubrin told me in an interview that if Elon Musk genuinely follows through on his pledge to divert future flotillas of Starships to the Moon, SpaceX’s chief designer could be following in the footsteps of his fellow genius Napoleon Bonaparte, whose ill-starred march on desolate Moscow ultimately led to his meteor-like crash.Giddy with his past triumphs and power, like Napoleon, Musk might be headed for a pyrrhic lunar victory that defeats his Mars campaign, Zubrin predicts. Just as Nap...