When NASA recently revealed the crew for the Artemis III mission at Johnson Space Center, the announcement captured public attention. The all-male team—Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and U.S. astronauts Andre Douglas, Frank Rubio and Randy Bresnik—will fly into low Earth orbit next year on a two-week mission to test lunar landers. Artemis III follows Artemis II and is a step toward Artemis IV and a return of humans to the Moon’s surface for the first time in over half a century.
While the United States is prominent in current headlines and leading the Artemis program, other nations are closing the gap. Several countries are pursuing ambitious lunar ambitions, from sustained human presence to sample returns and scientific bases.
China
China recently launched three taikonauts to its Tiangong space station, with plans for one crew member to remain aboard for a year to study human adaptability. These missions feed into Beijing’s longer-term objective of sending people to the Moon before 2030 and building a permanent lunar base by around 2035.
China announced the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) concept in 2021, originally in cooperation with Russia. The ILRS is envisioned near the lunar south pole and would make use of in-situ resources. Beijing has actively invited other countries to participate and to help shape collaboration rules, framing the ILRS as a more open alternative to the U.S.-led Artemis partnership. Current listed participants include Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Serbia, Pakistan, South Africa, Thailand, Venezuela, Kazakhstan and Senegal.
China’s robotic lunar program has been steady and diverse. Beginning with Chang’e 1 (2007), which mapped the Moon in detail, the program continued with Chang’e 2 (high-resolution imagery), Chang’e 3 (2013 lander carrying the Jade Rabbit rover), and Chang’e 4 (the first successful soft landing on the lunar far side in 2019). Chang’e 5 returned samples to Earth in 2020, and Chang’e 6 returned additional far-side material in 2024, the latter yielding data on potential lunar resources. These missions demonstrate China’s rapid, methodical progress across orbiters, landers, rovers and sample-return flights.
India
India has also made notable advances. The Chandrayaan program began with Chandrayaan-1 (2008), an orbiter that helped confirm the presence of water-related molecules on the Moon. Chandrayaan-2 (2019) included an orbiter, lander and rover, though the lander failed during descent. India achieved a high-profile success with Chandrayaan-3 in 2023, becoming the first country to land at the lunar south pole—an area of intense interest for future crewed missions.
India plans a Chandrayaan-4 sample-return mission no earlier than 2028, and is developing further cooperation with partners such as Japan for subsequent missions (Chandrayaan-5) to continue exploration of the lunar south polar region.
Russia
Russia’s contemporary lunar work focuses primarily on uncrewed missions. The Soviet program recorded many early lunar milestones, with the last successful Soviet-era soft landing occurring in 1976. More recently, Russia suffered a setback when Luna-25 crashed near the lunar south pole in 2023. As a partner in the ILRS, Russia has proposed ambitious infrastructure projects, including plans to place a nuclear power plant on the Moon by the mid-2030s to support long-duration operations.
Other players
A broader cohort of nations and private companies are also attempting lunar missions. Japan’s private company ispace made two high-profile landing attempts—Hakuto-R in 2023 and Resilience in 2025—that did not succeed, underscoring the technical difficulty of lunar touchdown. Numerous other national agencies and commercial ventures are developing lunar-capable hardware, support services and science payloads.
Legal and operational challenges
The Outer Space Treaty establishes that space and celestial bodies are free for exploration and use by all states and are not subject to national appropriation. That legal framework means any state can lawfully establish a presence on the Moon, but it also raises complex questions about how multiple bases, infrastructures and activities will coexist safely on a harsh and resource-limited surface.
Practically, competition and cooperation will have to be balanced. States and companies will need agreed rules for resource use, traffic management around landing sites and orbital infrastructure, and measures to prevent interference or contamination of scientific sites. Initiatives like Artemis and the ILRS reflect competing visions—one U.S.-led and partnership-based, the other promoted by China as an inclusive alternative—and both seek international partners to shape norms and technical standards.
Outlook
The coming decade looks likely to see more actors on and around the Moon: crewed missions, robotic landers and sample returns, and early attempts at sustained infrastructure. The United States remains a visible leader with Artemis, but China, India, Russia and an expanding list of other nations and commercial teams are rapidly increasing their capabilities. How these missions and programs interact—cooperatively or competitively—will shape lunar exploration, science and potential economic activity for decades to come.
About the author
Melissa de Zwart is a professor at Adelaide University. This piece is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
