Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson discusses lunar landing sites as he testifies during an April House Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing. One photo – multiple nations headed for lunar territory.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

A number of nations are heading for the Moon – first with robotic craft, but then to establish “permanent facilities.” Count in China, Russia, as well as the U.S. among those countries hungry to not only set up a research base, but also “live off the land” by tapping into a suspected bounty of resources on the Moon.

Already identified are areas at the Moon’s south pole, termed Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) that might be repositories of water ice. Once processed, these PSR-laden plots of ice could be utilized to sustain future human crews on the Moon’s crater-scared landscape. That icy supply of oxygen and hydrogen can be converted into rocket fuel and oxygen to breathe.

Rendering of Artemis astronauts exploring a lunar south pole crater. A water ice-rich resource ready for processing?
Image credit: NASA

There are those that assert a “space race” is underway. How serious is the situation and is there room for everyone – or perhaps the making of conflict regarding available resources, particularly at the lunar south pole?

For more information, go to my new Multiverse Media SpaceRef story — “Next Stop in Space Race 2.0 – South Pole of the Moon” – go to:

https://spaceref.com/science-and-exploration/space-race-2-south-pole-moon/