The Artemis II mission is scheduled for launch in late 2024 and is a critical step towards NASA’s goals of establishing a permanent human presence on and near the Moon.
Within the next year or two, people will set foot on the surface of the Moon for the first time in 50 years.
NASA
A US-led coalition and China are both planning to establish bases on the Moon. How the two nations will navigate actions on the Moon and how other countries will be involved is still unclear.
Making territorial claims in space is illegal under international law.
NASA/Neil Armstrong
The era of lunar resource use is quickly approaching. But with legal and practical issues still looming, nations are starting to think about sustainable ways to mine and protect the Moon.
China and the U.S. both have big plans for the Moon, but there are a number of reasons why no country could actually claim ownership of any land there.
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A comment by Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, sparked a strong public response from the Chinese government. But due to legal and practical reasons, no country could take over the Moon anytime soon.
In the next decade, both a U.S.-led group and a collaboration between Russia and China aim to set up bases on the Moon.
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In the past 10 years, international alliances on Earth have begun to expand into space. Nations with similar interests collaborate with one another while competing with other space blocs.
2022 is set to be humanity’s busiest year in space.
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With about 200 orbital launches scheduled and ambitious missions on everything from lunar bases to the search for life in the works, there’s a lot to watch in 2022. An astronomer explains the highlights.
Scientists have been studying lunar samples brought back from Apollo missions to understand the geologic history of the Moon.
NASA
Without a magnetic field, the Moon’s surface is exposed to solar wind. These could have been depositing resources like water and potential rocket fuel on the Moon’s surface for billions of years.
Eugene Cernan on the Moon, December 13, 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission, the last manned flight to the Earth’s natural satellite.
NASA
In the coming decades, governments and private companies will set up permanent bases on the Moon and Mars. And at some point, the first galactic baby will be born.
Illustration of a future Moon base by the European Space Agency, which hasn’t signed the Artemis Accords.
ESA; RegoLight, visualisation: Liquifer Systems Group, 2018