During a recent staff meeting at U.S. artificial intelligence company xAI, CEO Elon Musk reportedly told employees that he wants to build an AI satellite factory on the moon, according to The New York Times. Musk also said he wants a giant catapult at the factory that would launch those satellites into space.

“My estimate is that, within two to three years, the lowest-cost way to generate AI compute will be in space,” Musk wrote in a Feb. 2 update that announced SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI.

He reinforced that belief Feb. 11 in an all-hands meeting with xAI staff, video of which the company posted on X. Musk said that, while launching AI satellites from Earth is the immediate focus, SpaceX’s new Starship megarocket will also enable operations on other worlds.

“Thanks to advancements like in-space propellant transfer,” Musk wrote in the Feb. 2 update, “Starship will be capable of landing massive amounts of cargo on the moon. Once there, it will be possible to establish a permanent presence for scientific and manufacturing pursuits.”

Factories on the moon can take advantage of lunar resources to manufacture satellites and deploy them into space, Musk added.

“By using an electromagnetic mass driver and lunar manufacturing,” he wrote, “it is possible to put 500 to 1000 TW/year [terawatts per year] of AI satellites into deep space, meaningfully ascend the Kardashev scale and harness a non-trivial percentage of the sun’s power.”

If the moon mission is successful, Musk seems to have his eye on establishing a colony on Mars next. For years, he has described involvement with Mars as a necessary step in safeguarding humanity’s future, framing space colonization as a necessary backup plan and the next frontier of exploration.

Musk isn’t the first person to propose the use of mass drivers — which are basically railguns — on the moon. He’s following in the footsteps of space visionary Gerard O’Neill, who floated the idea back in 1974.

“Mass drivers” based on a coilgun design can be adapted to accelerate a non-magnetic object. One application O’Neill proposed for mass drivers: toss baseball-sized chunks of ore mined from the surface of the moon into space. Once in space, the ore could be used as raw material for building space colonies and solar power satellites.

O’Neill worked on mass drivers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), along with colleague Henry Kolm and a group of student volunteers to construct their first mass driver prototype.

据《纽约时报》报道，美人工智能公司xAI首席执行官埃隆·马斯克近日在一次内部员工会议上表示，公司需在月球上建立AI卫星制造工厂，并利用巨型太空弹射器将卫星送入轨道。

“我的估计是，在两到三年内，生成人工智能计算成本最低的方式将是在太空，”马斯克在2月2日宣布SpaceX收购xAI的声明中写道。

2月11日，在与xAI员工举行的全体会议上，他重申了这一信念，公司将该会议视频发布在了X上。马斯克表示，虽然从地球发射人工智能卫星是当前重点，但SpaceX的新一代“星舰”重型火箭也将能在其他星球上操作。

“得益于在轨推进剂转移等进步，”马斯克写道，“‘星舰’以后可以将大量货物送上月球，就有可能为科学和制造活动建立一个永久基地。”

他补充说，月球上的工厂可以利用月球资源制造卫星并将其部署到太空。

“通过使用电磁质量驱动器和月球制造，”他写道，“有可能将每年500到1000太瓦的人工智能卫星送入深空，有意义地提升卡尔达舍夫等级，并利用太阳能量的相当大一部分。”

如果月球任务成功，马斯克接下来将着眼于在火星上建立殖民地。他一直认为火星探索是保障人类未来的必要步骤，太空殖民是必要的备份计划和下一个探索前沿。

马斯克并非第一个提议在月球上使用质量驱动器的人。杰拉德·奥尼尔早在1974年就提出了这个想法。

基于线圈枪设计的”质量驱动器”可以适用于加速非磁性物体。奥尼尔为质量驱动器提出的一个应用是：将从月球表面开采的棒球大小的矿石块抛入太空。一旦进入太空，这些矿石就可以用作建造太空殖民地和太阳能发电卫星的原材料。

奥尼尔曾在麻省理工学院与一群学生志愿者一起研究质量驱动器，建造了他们的第一个质量驱动器原型。

(Translated by DeepSeek)