The industrial exploitation of the Moon is no longer a fantasy and is becoming a question for the coming decades. Interest in Earth's satellite today is fueled less by scientific curiosity than by economic prospects and geopolitical competition. At stake is access to resources, technological leadership, and the ability to dictate rules in the new space era.

What are they looking for on the Moon?

The main interest today is focused on the South Pole of the Moon. There are areas with constant sunlight and, more importantly, deposits of water ice. Water is not only drinking water for future settlers. It can be split into hydrogen and oxygen, obtaining rocket fuel and components for breathing. The one who first creates infrastructure in these strategic points will gain a decisive advantage.

In addition to water, other resources attract attention. The lunar regolith contains rare earth metals, titanium, iron, and vanadium. But the main hope is associated with the isotope helium-3. It is extremely rare on Earth, while its concentration on the Moon is much higher. Helium-3 is considered a promising fuel for nuclear fusion and is in demand in quantum computing and medical tomography.

Who is building the lunar economy?

A new space race has broken out for the industrial exploitation of the Moon. The competition is between three main forces: the United States, China, and Russia.

USA and the Artemis program

NASA is implementing the ambitious Artemis program, whose goal is to return humans to the Moon and create a permanent base there. It is planned that by 2032, a semi-permanent infrastructure will be deployed, followed by permanent human presence. The base will be built in the area of the South Pole. NASA has already signed contracts for the development of lunar rovers and unmanned vehicles totaling about four hundred and forty million dollars for the construction and supply of the base.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine called this base the first American and human fort on another celestial body.

China and Russia: an alternative alliance

Beijing and Moscow are developing the International Scientific Lunar Station as an alternative to the American program. China has already demonstrated its capabilities by delivering a lunar rover to the far side of the Moon and returning soil samples. Beijing sets the task of sending its taikonauts to the surface by 2030. Russia is connecting its accumulated experience to the project, although its own program has encountered a pause after the unsuccessful landing of the Luna-25 probe.

Robots or people?

The key question of industrial exploitation is who will work on the Moon. Academician RA Lev Zeleny, scientific director of the Institute of Space Research, believes that success will depend not on whose astronaut steps on the Moon first in the 21st century, but on the development of robotics.

Lunar conditions are extremely hostile to humans: high radiation, lunar dust, the absence of a magnetic field, and huge temperature fluctuations. Robots can work around the clock and do not require complex life support systems. Therefore, the priority is to create universal automatic systems capable of solving practical tasks in these extreme conditions.

Astronaut Anton Skaplerov believes that mining and processing of ore will be carried out by robots, while humans will mainly be needed for repairing complex equipment. At the same time, the transportation of raw materials to Earth is economically unfeasible, so the entire production cycle should be organized directly on the Moon.

When will mining begin?

Projections vary, but most experts agree that economically viable mining of resources may begin in the next two decades. Currently, the number of startups related to lunar missions and global investments in space is growing rapidly.

For example, the American startup Interlunar received a grant of six and nine-tenths million dollars from NASA to create a system for extracting gases, including helium-3, from the regolith. The company has already announced pre-orders totaling half a billion dollars from the US Department of Energy and private contractors.

However, not everyone shares optimism. Rosnedra head Oleg Kazanov believes that there is no reason to expect rich deposits on the Moon. The geological history of the satellite is too simple to form large deposits. The only unusual resource is helium-3, which currently does not have technologies for industrial extraction and a high demand.

The legal issue: who owns the Moon?

The key issue that hampers investments is the ownership of the extracted raw materials. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 prohibits national appropriation of celestial bodies. However, the United States adheres to the approach that the Moon itself cannot be claimed, but the extracted resources become the property of those who extracted them.

This position is enshrined in the Artemis Agreements to which sixty-nine states have already joined. Russia and China criticize this approach, considering it contrary to the spirit of the Outer Space Treaty and advocating for an international control model. This legal conflict is essentially a reflection of the geopolitical struggle for lunar resources.
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