{"id":931388,"date":"2026-09-02T11:20:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T16:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/02\/elon-musk-reveals-spacex-plans-to-build-satellite-factories-on-the-moon\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T11:20:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T16:20:59","slug":"elon-musk-reveals-spacex-plans-to-build-satellite-factories-on-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/02\/elon-musk-reveals-spacex-plans-to-build-satellite-factories-on-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk reveals SpaceX plans to build satellite factories on the moon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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August 5, 2026<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

\"Google Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Musk outlined his vision to investors after SpaceX posted a $542-million loss from its space launch sector in its first quarter as a public company<\/p>\n

By Adam Kovac<\/a> edited by Claire Cameron<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A 3D-generated image of a futuristic Chinese base with an industrial complex on the moon.<\/p>\n

Getty Images\/gremlin<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Elon Musk laid out a sweeping plan for SpaceX to reach profitability during an investor call on Tuesday\u2014including robotic satellite factories on the moon.<\/p>\n

Musk, who is known for making ambitious timeline predictions that don\u2019t always hold up to reality, told investors this will come to fruition \u201cfaster than you think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building factories largely staffed by robotic workers \u201csounds like super sci-fi right now,\u201d he acknowledged, \u201cbut it\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Those facilities, when combined with solar and radiation-based energy production on the lunar surface, would allow humanity to \u201cscale to 1,000 times the economy of Earth in terms of intelligence launched to space but probably, maybe even a million times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The idea of manufacturing on the moon isn\u2019t ludicrous, says Patrick Suermann, a professor of construction science at Texas A&M University, who recently visited SpaceX\u2019s Starbase headquarters in Texas. He pointed to NASA\u2019s timeline for establishing a permanent lunar base<\/a>, currently slated to be completed by 2032, replete with a nuclear power reactor.<\/p>\n

Constructing a lunar satellite factory would likely make economic sense because the moon\u2019s reduced gravity would mean that less fuel would be necessary to launch satellites from there compared with launching them from Earth, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that it\u2019s wise because the most expensive part of a launch is the fuel to get it out of our atmosphere,\u201d Suermann says. \u201cIf you could have the level of productivity that they have at their \u2018gigafactory\u2019 or at the Starbase factory but be able to then cut out that huge portion of cost to be able to launch things into a cislunar orbit or back to a low-Earth orbit or even onto Mars, I think that\u2019s really the main driving force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting the infrastructure in place for a factory would be extremely expensive. Also on Tuesday SpaceX posted a loss of $542 million from its space segment, as well as a $1.257-billion loss from its artificial intelligence operations, for the quarter. During that day\u2019s call, Musk told investors that he anticipated that SpaceX\u2019s investment in AI infrastructure will eventually pay off as the company leverages its rocketry expertise into improving its data center engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you apply a small amount of the engineering skill that goes into making gigantic rockets reach orbit on a regular basis reliably to terrestrial data centers, this is like, frankly, the New York Yankees going in and playing a Little League team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the immediate term, those financial losses were offset by the profitability of the connectivity portion of the business, which is primarily composed of the Starlink<\/a> communications satellite constellation. All in all, SpaceX had a $143-million loss from operations.<\/p>\n

On the call, Musk also touted two recent successful test flights of the company\u2019s Starship megarocket, which has been beset by delays. During the most recent flight<\/a>, the vehicle deployed 20 Starlink satellites before returning to Earth, although a fire did briefly break out following splashdown. Starship\u2019s upcoming 14th test flight is tentatively slated for some time in late August.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to actually explain to most people just the incredible significance of Starship, and I think perhaps describing it in terms of tonnage to orbit is a good way to appreciate the magnitude of the impact Starship will have on the future of civilization,\u201d Musk said. The rocket, he claimed, will one day launch \u201cover one million tons to orbit and probably ultimately 10 million tons per year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n

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Erasmo Antes
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August 5, 2026 3 min read Add Us On Google Add SciAm Musk outlined his vision to investors after SpaceX posted a $542-million loss from its space launch sector in its first quarter as a public company By Adam Kovac edited by Claire Cameron A 3D-generated image of a futuristic Chinese base with an industrial<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":931389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[336,1861],"tags":[6130,6129],"class_list":["post-931388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reveals","category-spacex","tag-reveals","tag-spacex"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}