Humanity should have a moon base, cities on Mars: Musk

Half a century has passed since the last Moon landing, which is disappointing for humanity and we should now aim to have a living base in space, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Monday.

The Apollo 11 mission in 1969 first landed humans on the Moon.

Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969 and Armstrong became the first person to step onto the Moon's surface six hours and 39 minutes later, on July 21.

Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later, and they spent about two and a quarter hours together exploring the site they had named Tranquility Base upon landing.

"Only 66 years from first flight to landing on the moon, but now half a century has passed since the last moon landing," Musk posted on X.

He said that this cannot be "our high water mark as a civilisation".

"Humanity should have a moon base, cities on Mars and be out there among the stars," the X owner added.

Musk has bigger plans for traveling beyond Earth's orbit.

"We should have a base on the moon, like a permanently occupied human base on the moon, and then send people to Mars. Maybe there's something beyond the space station, but we'll see," he had said in the past.

The tech billionaire has predicted that SpaceX's Starship mega rocket can make an uncrewed mission to Mars in three or four years.