A Bright Spot

The New York Post reports: "NASA unveils $10B Moon base contract as SpaceX, Blue Origin join lunar gold rush." The article relates:

    NASA announced Saturday that Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and six other aerospace companies are eligible to compete for up to $10 billion in lunar delivery contracts as the agency advances plans to establish a permanent base on the moon.

    The announcement, made at the MAX POWER aerospace expo and air show at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, expands NASA’s commercial lunar program, bringing together private companies to deliver scientific equipment, technology and infrastructure to the moon’s south pole.

    The new Commercial Lunar Payload Services framework has a maximum combined value of $10 billion over 10 years, with the figure representing a ceiling for future task orders, not money already awarded to participating companies.    

    Alongside SpaceX and Blue Origin, NASA selected Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, iSpace US, Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Space Systems and Voyager Technologies to compete for future lunar delivery missions.

    “We are building the Moon Base mission by mission,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement.

    “When our astronauts return to the Moon, they will arrive with the first elements of the Moon Base already waiting for them on the surface.”    

Long ago a read a book by George Friedman with the title The Future of War.  One of the topics he covered in the book was the (then) future importance of the Moon. He argued that the Moon--and by extension the L4 and L5 Lagrange points--are the ultimate "high ground" in warfare; and whoever controls the Moon will control the space around Earth. Thus, this is not some national vanity project but something of vital importance. And you can see this because of the many nations, but most especially China, who are also attempting to establish a presence on the Moon. And I don't think for one moment that China will honor the Outer Space Treaty if it achieves a firm foothold on the lunar surface.