The race to the south pole

Moon Base, prospecting rovers, Chinese landers and the payloads that will finally measure the ice. Our running coverage.

Start here: Building a Moon base is a procurement story. Watch NASA's Oct. 23 briefing

1. 
   Building a Moon base is a procurement story. Watch NASA's Oct. 23 briefing

   Two SpaceNews episodes and a Friday NASA briefing describe a step-by-step base. Local resources stay a bonus until a mission depends on them.
2. 
   Moon Base rovers will prospect for resources. That's the real story

   NASA's Oct. 20 update quietly adds resource prospecting to the rovers' daily work. Whether it means anything depends on the payload list.
3. 
   Interlune's Prospect Moon is the first payload built to answer the helium-3 question. It still needs a ride

   Three scoops, two extraction methods and a mass spectrometer. Ready in September 2027, seeking a 2028 launch, with customer deliveries due around the same time.
4. 
   Chang'e-7's slip to 2027 hands the south pole a quiet year

   China's ice-hunting lander, with a hopper built to enter shadowed craters, missed its August window. What the delay means for the race to measure lunar ice.
5. 
   Starship goes orbital from Flight 14. The refueling test is the one that matters for the Moon

   SpaceX says orbital flights start with Flight 14 and a ship-to-ship propellant transfer is targeted for 2026. Why lunar miners should care more than satellite customers.
6. 
   ESA is paying to find out whether Moon mining makes money. Good

   A MIRORES-led consortium will model the full lunar resource chain, from prospecting to customer, for water, oxygen, metals and helium-3.
7. 
   MMX is heading for Phobos, and its sample could settle a resource question

   JAXA's sample-return mission launched Oct. 19. Whether Phobos is a captured asteroid or Martian debris changes what it's good for.

Other reading paths

• Break in: join the mission (10 reads)
• Space resources 101 (6 reads)
• The money (5 reads)
• Rules of the road (3 reads)