America’s lunar landing last month was another giant leap for humanity – and opens up the prospect of space stations, permanent lunar bases and a new mining industry. Simon Wilson reports
What’s happened?
A spacecraft called Odysseus landed in a crater near the south pole of the Moon late last month, opening up a new chapter in the history of lunar exploration. It was the first US spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon in more than half a century (the last was the Apollo 17 crewed mission in 1972). Even more significantly, the robotic lander is financed, built and operated by a private business, the Houston-based start-up Intuitive Machines, rather than a national space agency. The craft, also known as the Nova-C lander, was launched from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket – and took seven days to complete the 384,000km journey. Its landing marks a breakthrough for the commercial space sector, and potentially a historic milestone in the development of a nascent “lunar economy”. Bill Nelson, the head of Nasa, called it a “new adventure in science, innovation and American leadership in space… a giant leap for all of humanity”.
What’s the lunar economy?
There’s a “bustling field of runners and riders working on plans to explore, settle and develop the Moon”, says Jacqui Goddard in The Times – many of them directed towards collaboration with Nasa’s Artemis programme. After decades of relative lack of interest in the Moon, it’s once again central to America’s space programmes, with plans for a ten-day test voyage with four astronauts (Artemis II, due after September 2025) and then a manned landing on the lunar surface targeted for late 2026 or 2027 (Artemis III). Last month’s IM-1 mission is part of Nasa’s $2.6bn Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme in preparation for those and future missions – partnering with private industry to deliver scientific instruments to the lunar surface and test new technologies. The US is also planning to build a “lunar gateway” – a space station from which astronauts can be shuttled to the lunar surface – with the ultimate aim of constructing permanent bases where scientists and geologists can work.
Why all the interest?
Three main drivers. First, geopolitical competition. The original space race took place during the Cold War, in
