Harnessing Private Partnerships to Bring Humans to the Moon

Key takeaways:

● The publicity of the Artemis II mission revealed the public’s interest in space and lunar exploration, reflecting NASA’s ambitions in a rising competitive field.

●The Artemis program sees significant collaboration with the private sector, including in manufacturing and developing spaceship components, lunar habitats, resource exploration and extraction, energy infrastructures, etc.

NASA and commercial partnerships

On 01 April 2026, the Artemis II program launched, sending a crew of four to fly around the Moon. The Artemis program is emblematic of NASA’s goal to bring humans back to the lunar surface. The program ultimately aims to begin the construction of a lunar base and is relevant in terms of resource exploration, scientific discovery, and fuelling the commercial space sector. Private sector involvement in space and cis-lunar exploration has become increasingly prominent in recent years. The rising salience of the space domain, the increase in costs, and the growth of competition due to the US-China Moon-space race mean that utilising the private sector to supplement manufacturing, logistics, and technological needs has become essential. The Artemis program exemplifies this symbiotic relationship, heavily relying on and partnering with commercial actors in furthering its strategy.

Indeed, Artemis III aims to test commercial lunar landers, and the overall program collaborates massively with companies such as Boeing and SpaceX in technological development and manufacturing. Further collaboration will become essential as the Artemis program enters its final phase to establish a long-term lunar base. Commercial resources are outsourced to develop key components and equipment, including small-modular reactors and mineral exploration and extraction systems. Potential ice and rare mineral deposits are a key driver of cooperation, offering both scientific and economic benefits from exploitation. In addition to SpaceX, Blue Origin has also been commissioned to develop Human Landing Systems (HLS) for both Artemis III and IV, ensuring that the human crew can land safely on the lunar surface.

Establishing an economic partnership with a national space agency nevertheless remains difficult. A nation’s space program is often a matter of national security, marked by high regulatory barriers. NASA’s Artemis program and China’s Chang’e program directly rival each other in terms of focusing on lunar exploration. Both countries often find that commercial space companies are framed within the national space strategy. Earlier this year, when Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was in talks with Elon Musk concerning a potential deal with Starlink, public outrage erupted, with many stating it was a national security concern.

Establishing a lunar base

In the wake of severe cost overruns and logistics-related delays for NASA last year, the agency cancelled several moon-related projects, including the Lunar Gateway. However, this also marked a pivot, as the agency declared it would fully focus its resources on a three-phase Moon base, estimated to amount to $30 billion over the next decade. This program calls for 76 lunar landings, demanding over 200 metric tons of hardware. Running as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, private contractors were reached out to, to develop habitats, nuclear reactors, rovers, drones, and in-situ manufacturing in order to facilitate a human presence on the Moon by 2033. Industry partners are also crucial in conducting repeated transport between the Moon and Earth, potentially completing medium- to large-sized cargo shipments to the lunar surface.

Business interests in the Moon

Commercial actors have had a growing presence in space, extending beyond satellite communications development. Private actors are increasingly contracted by public agencies to help develop their space strategies, including NASA’s lunar ambitions. Companies such as SpaceX are contracted to develop and manufacture components essential to space missions, such as HLSs. Companies such as Rolls-Royce are contracted to develop nuclear reactors to fuel a lunar base. Overall, there are many ways in which private companies are implicated in lunar exploration, ranging across every sector. Most prominently, companies are interested in developing resource exploration and extraction mechanisms, interested in the Moon's potentially extensive rare mineral deposits. Interoperability is also a rising goal for commercial actors, aiming to offer long-term services that would allow more interaction between private and public space actors. This would allow for greater information-sharing mechanisms and expertise exchanges.