Netizens have torn into SpaceX CEO Elon Musk for touting the colonization of Mars with a photo of the Moon during an eclipse. While some suggested it was an egregious mistake, others argued Musk was just taunting the US president.
The tech entrepreneur, who just last week almost deleted his Twitter account over a row with a sketch artist, may again consider leaving the platform after being mocked for similarly mixing up the Moon and Mars in a promotional photo.
On Sunday, Musk touted his Starship project, a multibillion-dollar rocket that one day might take people to the red planet.
“Accelerating Starship development to build the Martian Technocracy,” Musk stated in a tweet. An hour later, he followed up his initial message with a picture of the Moon against the slogan “Occupy Mars.”
Although one may argue that the Moon in Musk’s tweet resembles Mars due to its reddish tinge, inquisitive netizens immediately spotted the mistake and started educating Musk on the Moon’s looks, shaming him for allowing the mix-up.
“Are we occupying Mars during a lunar eclipse or did you not realize that’s the moon?” one tweeter wrote.
“ First you need to be able to identify a picture of it dude,” another chuckled.
Offering Musk a helping hand, a commentator resorted to PowerPoint magic to “fix” the caption.
While the prevailing mood on Twitter was that Musk had made a simple mistake and may even delete the tweet afterwards, some devout fans of the space visionary argued that the picture was perhaps a subtle dig at US President Donald Trump.
“Um… are you intentionally making fun of our President? Cuz if you’re not, may I? MoonMars!” a commenter wrote.
Trump sparked a fact-checking craze earlier this month when he tweeted that NASA should explore Mars, “of which the Moon is a part.” Although it was most likely Trump meant that any mission to the Moon should be undertaken with Mars in sight, he got pilloried by astronomy-savvy Democrats anyway.
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