On August 10, a Soyuz-2 booster rocketed off the launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian far east. It carried the Luna-25 probe into orbit and, with it, the hopes of Russia’s moribund space program. The probe was to be Moscow’s first mission to the moon in nearly a half century, and, on August 17, Luna-25 entered stable lunar orbit in preparation for Russia’s first soft landing on the moon’s surface since 1976. But Russia’s hopes were dashed over the weekend when the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, announced it had lost contact with the probe. It is assumed to have crashed into the lunar surface after shifting into an “off-design orbit.”
Space is a deadly and difficult place to navigate, even for unmanned robotic explorers. But Russia’s unsuccessful effort to stage a return to the lunar surface was only a prelude to a flurry of activity among aspiring space-faring nations. India’s Chandrayaan-3 inserted into lunar orbit earlier this month and plans to touch down on the moon’s surface this week. Japan is preparing to launch its SLIM lander next month, which aims to prove the concept of smaller, more accurate lunar-exploration vehicles. China hopes to follow the success of its 2020 Chang’e-5 mission to the moon with the Chang’e-6 — a probe that will explore and return samples from the far side of the lunar surface in preparation for China’s first manned mission to the moon (which Beijing hopes to achieve before the end of the decade).
To all this, Americans seem almost bored. The moon is old hat — something that fired the imaginations a generation ago but is today about as novel as the catalytic converter.
A July 2023 Pew Research Center poll found that nearly seven in ten Americans still believe that it is “essential” for the United States “to be a leader in space exploration.” But when asked what NASA’s priorities should be, the only majority propositions were for the agency to dedicate itself to monitoring both the Earth’s climate and potential Earth-crossing objects. Just 34 percent said NASA should be in the business of identifying and developing space-based materials for use on Earth, and fewer than 20 percent of Americans said it was vital to see the agency return Americans to the surface of the moon or explore Mars.
Americans have internalized a misconception, then, about our celestial companion — one belied by the number of foreign space agencies devoting time and resources to developing reliable methods of landing on the lunar surface, harvesting materials on its surface, and returning them safely to Earth. The moon is no distraction, nor is its manned exploration a mission distinct from the development of the resources orbiting our sun.
Being a leader in space exploration will mean making the moon into a way station. Its lack of atmosphere and reduced gravity make it an ideal refueling station on the way to other objects in the solar system, but the resources and investments necessary to see that project to completion are the exclusive province of governments. Developing the lunar surface is a force multiplier for commercial enterprises making tentative forays into lower orbit — tourism, yes, but also industrial applications and a platform to explore and extract materials from the resource-rich asteroid belt. But commercial space exploration enterprises such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic won’t be developing lunar infrastructure anytime soon.
Moreover, when — not if — fusion ignition becomes a reliable method of power generation, harvesting the scarce isotope helium-3 from the lunar surface is likely to become a consuming obsession for every major power on the planet. Its industrial applications extend beyond its practical superiority over impossibly rare tritium as the most efficient way to generate a sustained, by-product-free fusion reaction, but that is the element’s foremost value proposition. Nowhere is this isotope within our reach save the moon’s surface.
Some of this might sound science-fictional, but that is not the view of the powerful commercial interests in the U.S. seeking to develop the moon’s resources. Nor for that matter is it the view of the Indians, Russians, and Chinese, all of whom are openly advertising their intention to one day bring the moon’s resources to market. Beyond helium-3, the rare-earth and platinum-group metals and water ice harvestable on the moon ensure that it is only a matter of time before someone makes these resources available for consumption. Preferably, it would be us.