The space race to the moon.

During the Cold War, the U.S. was in a space race with the Soviet Union over space travel, which culminated in the landing on the moon by American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrich in 1969. We won that race, but it was purely a political victory and it went nowhere, because there was nothing there and we had no goal but to get there first. After a few trips, we never went back, and the Soviets discontinued the race and never made it to the moon.

‘That was then, and this is now. A new race has started, between the U.S. and China.

with China emerging as a world superpower and in competition with the U.S. in an ever increasing hostile and aggressive posture, the race is taking on a more national security aspect to it which it never had with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. China is advancing on the U.S. with new technology. They developed their own space program and space station after being excluded from the International Space Station. Their goal on exploring the moon is to search for water, and establish a moon base from which to explore space. The U.S. is concerned that China will claim territorial rights to the moon for military reasons and resources, and use their base/bases to spy on the U.S. and it’s Allies.

Generally speaking,China wants to be first so they have the right to dominate and monopolise the resources. If you have the resources in your hand then you have a huge advantage in the future of space exploration.

The US and China are leading the development of separate space station programs for the moon. The US-led Artemis program includes plans for a “Lunar Gateway”, a station orbiting the moon as a communication and accommodation hub for astronauts, and a scientific laboratory.

The U.S. knows the moon’s not really a habitable place, they are more interested in Mars. So for them the Lunar Gateway is sort of a gas station for the journey to Mars. If the Artemis program can source water from the moon, it could be processed to create rocket fuel from the hydrogen and oxygen. And really, a moon village would be permanent, whereas a space station is impermanent. The moon is millions of years old and going strong, whereas the man made space stations would not last as long before failing.

In contrast, China and Russia announced in 2021 joint plans to build a shared research station on the surface of the moon. The International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) would be open to any interested international parties they said. However the US would unlikely be among them given its poor relations with both Russia and China.

The US is gathering allies to ensure China doesn’t win the space race. Earlier this month, not long after China announced its intentions to land a person on the moon, the US and Japan pledged to send a astronaut from Japan – China’s historical rival – to the moon on Nasa’s Artemis missions in 2028 and again in 2032.

But China is also gathering allies. It has partnerships or financial stakes in projects across the Middle East and Latin America, and around a dozen international members for its International Lunar Research Station, ILRS.

It won’t be long before the moon is fully occupied by world powers as a valuable and strategic asset. And it will be easy to get to, just a few days travel from Earth by todays technology, maybe quicker in a few years, whereas travel time to Mars takes 11 months one way, and there is still nothing there, just like the moon. So actually, the moon makes more sense to occupy and develop, not only as an asset, but to keep it out of the hands of our enemies, China and Russia, who might use it to attack or control us. This race has serious consequences and we better win.