Mr Musk has made no secret of his desire to get his Starship rocket to the Moon, and then Mars. However, his latest announcement came as a surprise to SpaceX fans when he said Starship will put a “literal Dogecoin” on the surface of the Moon.

Mr Musk said on Twitter: “SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon”.

The timing of the announcement seemed suspect to some fans, who were quick to realise it is April Fools Day.

However, Michael Sheetz, space reporter for CNBC tweeted: “I know it’s April Fool’s but I don’t for a second question that he means this.”

Mr Musk saw the tweet, and responded: “After all, SpaceX’s first payload to orbit & back was a wheel of cheese.”

SpaceX did indeed send a giant wheel of cheese into space on the first-ever Dragon space capsule in 2010.

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency based on the common ‘doge’ meme which is a picture of a Shiba Inu dog accompanied by silly text.

Mr Musk has made several announcements over the past months about Dogecoin, causing the value of the cryptocurrency to skyrocket.

In the hours since Mr Musk made the announcement, the value has jumped by 18 percent.

READ MORE: SpaceX: Why is SN15 the next prototype to launch and not SN12?

This is not the first time the Canadian musician has made such a claim about moving to Mars.

In a Q&A video in February, Grimes said she is prepared to serve as a manual labourer on Mars, even at the risk of death.

When asked about the biggest risks of moving to Mars, she said: “Manual labour until death most likely, but hopefully, that can change”.