🌕 🇺🇸 🇨🇳 Why is there so much military interest in the moon?

🔶️ A trio of proactive DARPA undertakings looking to advance technologies for use on the moon has been welcomed in some quarters. Back in 2021, DARPA kick-started its Novel Orbital moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass Efficient Design (NOM4D) program. Last month, DARPA threw in some "LOGIC" into the mix via the Lunar Operating Guidelines for Infrastructure Consortium, or LOGIC for short. DARPA has also initiated the 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study to spur the development of an integrated future lunar infrastructure for "peaceful U.S. and international use."

🔶️ Beijing is working to establish a long-term presence in space, "which it seeks to accomplish by first dominating the cislunar domain" - the space between Earth and the moon.
Noted by the Commission is U.S. military belief that cislunar space is an important domain, one that allows the United States to place its national security space assets beyond low-Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit and to establish infrastructure that will enable long-term presence on the moon and elsewhere.

🔶️ In the 1970's NASA asked the Air Force if they wanted a base on the moon, and they said no, Szymanski told Space.com. "Yet now, I personally know of companies planning on providing cell phone service on the moon and the Air Force Research Lab is developing several programs, such as space surveillance for the far side of the moon. None of this makes sense, unless there is some other not publicly known factor that has changed everyone's attitudes."

🔶️ Szymanski said he theorizes that China will abrogate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty just before landing their first astronauts on the moon.

🔶️ "They will then declare ownership of the entire moon, like the Pope did centuries ago declaring Spain and Portugal owned the entire Western hemisphere. Good luck defending all of that!"

https://www.space.com/military-moves-on-the-moon

https://archive.ph/Vx7Kv