Last time, it was the Soviet Union and the United States vying to be the first to plant some flags. Now it’s a sprint to the lunar surface between America and China—alongside a host of varyingly friendly and rival nations—plus a cornucopia of private spaceflight companies. And this time it looks like they’re getting ready to set up camp.
There will be, the contenders say, bases on the moon, permanently inhabited castles under the stars. The notion of a moon base, fanciful as it might sound, isn’t new. But this year, under the leadership of Administrator Jared Isaacman, NASA has been flooding the zone with bold announcements.
If all goes according to plan—a plan that will likely cost tens of billions of dollars to start—there will be drones, robotic landers, communication satellites, and a nuclear power plant; there will be plant terrariums and moonquake sensors; there will be mechanized scouts exploring craters for water. Initial astronaut missions to the lunar surface, which the US is currently planning to start in 2028, will be focused on exploration and technological experimentation. But the idea is that we will—some time in the 2030s—get to a point where there will be habitation quarters for long-term stays, surrounded by a network of scientific research stations, resource mining and processing plants, and landing pads for spaceships.
China has near-identical plans to build its own base on the moon. And being first matters, because the “victor” gets to define the terms. What is the moon, exactly?
Is it a militarized outpost? Is it a manufacturing hub? Is it a wilderness to be studied and preserved?
But there are also other reasons to go. Earth’s companion contains primeval rocks that hold clues to the formation of the entire solar system. The lunar surface, with virtually no atmosphere in the way, is an ideal place to put telescopes that could examine the most ancient epochs of the cosmos.
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