The owner of SpaceX, Elon Musk, calls on NASA to abandon its Artemis lunar program, because he believes that instead of the planned landing of a man on the Moon, it is necessary to go straight to Mars. But this contradicts NASA’s long-standing plans, writes Futurism.

U Focus. Technologies has its own Telegram channel. Subscribe so you don't miss the latest and most exciting news from the world of science!

Elon Musk, on his social network X, criticized NASA, arguing that the Artemis lunar program, which envisages landing the first astronauts of this century on the Moon in 2027 and further creating a base there, is very ineffective. Musk believes NASA's lunar program is "

Criticism of the US space agency by the owner of SpaceX once again highlights Musk's obsession with the idea of \u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bcreating a city on Mars inhabited by a million people.. Musk wants to implement this idea with the help of the Starship heavy rocket, which has already passed several tests last year and was created by his company.

Interestingly, the Artemis lunar program was initiated by Donald Trump, who was elected President of the United States for the second time, during his last presidential term in 2017. And Musk is a friend and ally of Trump. Experts believe that Musk's call to bypass the Moon and immediately go to Mars is not entirely logical and short-sighted.. However, such messages from the billionaire cannot be ignored given his enormous new influence.

Now Musk has a huge influence on the political landscape in the United States, because most recently he helped Trump become president and was put in charge of the so-called “Department of Government Effectiveness”, which aims to save $2 trillion from the US budget. Whether this advisory group can target funding cuts to the Artemis program remains to be seen.

Now that Musk has such enormous influence, NASA's efforts to land astronauts on the moon could be in serious jeopardy.. At a minimum, the entire lunar program may change greatly. Perhaps Musk will be able to achieve in the short term the cancellation of NASA's use of the expensive Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle for the lunar program in favor of the Starship rocket.

It remains to be seen how the possible future head of NASA, Jared Isaacman, a billionaire and space tourist who has twice traveled to space on a SpaceX ship, will react to such calls from Musk.. He still supports the existing plan for the Artemis program and believes that “Americans will walk on both the Moon and Mars.”.

Isaacman's position directly contradicts Musk's desire to direct all efforts to fly exclusively to Mars, and not to the Moon.. How this story ends will probably become clear in the near future..

It is worth noting that NASA’s lunar program includes the development of a landing lunar module for astronauts based on the Starship spacecraft.

And this landing module is being created by Elon Musk’s company..

As Focus already wrote, scientists from NASA have found out whether the desert planets from “Dune” and “Star Wars” can be inhabited.. New research could be a big disappointment for fans of science fiction cinematic universes.

Focus also wrote that scientists talked about what the temperature is on the Earth’s satellite. It’s actually not always very cold on the Moon and not everywhere..