Moonbase
A moonbase is a human outpost on or below the surface of the Moon. More than a mere site of activity or temporary camp, moonbases are extraterrestrial bases, supporting robotic or human activity, by providing surface infrastructure. Missions to the Moon have realized single-mission bases,, as well as some small permanent infrastructure like lunar laser ranging installations.
Plans for establishing moonbases, with surface or sub-surface research stations, have been proposed and are actively pursued nationally and increasingly internationally. As of 2025, the two most advanced projects to set up moonbases have been pursued multilaterally as part of the US-led Artemis program, with its planned Artemis Base Camp and as the China-led International Lunar Research Station. A broader, international infrastructure has been envisioned with the so-called [|Moon Village concept], and a general international regulatory regime for lunar activity has been called for by the 1979 signed Moon Treaty, and advocated for with an implementation agreement since 2020.
The surface infrastructure of a base may consist of pre-integrated basic landers, as supporting stations for robotic rovers, or habitation modules for crewed presence, or of surface assembled or in-situ derived and constructed surface stations for sustained lunar habitation. Lunar bases may work with lunar space stations, which in contrast provide infrastructures in lunar orbit supporting activity from there, as with the planned Lunar Gateway of the Artemis program.
The development of moonbases into permanent extraterrestrial settlements has been put forward. Broader lunar colonization or space colonization in general, particularly as laying territorial claims, which is prohibited by international space law, has been criticized for perpetuating colonialism.
Past bases
The Apollo Program established the first six temporary bases on the Moon, starting with Tranquility Base.Later robotic missions set up simple robotic temporary bases, leaving their landers behind, starting with Luna 16.
Regulation
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty defines the Moon and all outer space as the "province of all mankind". It restricts the use of the Moon to peaceful purposes, explicitly banning military installations and weapons of mass destruction. A majority of countries are parties of this treaty.The 1979 Moon Agreement was created to elaborate on the Outer Space Treaty, restricting the exploitation of the Moon's resources, particularly by any single nation, leaving it to a yet unspecified international regulatory regime. As of January 2020, the Moon Agreement has been signed and ratified by 18 nations, none of which have human spaceflight capabilities.
Current lunar programs are multilateral, with the US-led Artemis program and the China-led International Lunar Research Station. For broader international cooperation and coordination the International Lunar Exploration Working Group, the Moon Village Association and more generally the International Space Exploration Coordination Group has been established.
Since 2020, countries have joined the U.S. in their Artemis Accords, which are challenging the treaty. The U.S. has furthermore emphasized in a presidential executive order that "the United States does not view outer space as a 'global commons and calls the Moon Agreement "a failed attempt at constraining free enterprise."
With Australia signing and ratifying both the Moon Treaty in 1986 as well as the Artemis Accords in 2020, there has been a discussion if they can be harmonized. In this light an Implementation Agreement for the Moon Treaty has been advocated for, as a way to compensate for the shortcomings of the Moon Treaty and to harmonize it with other laws and agreements such as the Artemis Accords, allowing it to be more widely accepted.
Conservation
In the face of such increasing commercial and national interest, particularly prospecting territories, U.S. lawmakers have introduced in late 2020 specific regulation for the conservation of historic landing sites and interest groups have argued for making such sites World Heritage Sites and zones of scientific value protected zones, all of which add to the legal availability and territorialization of the Moon.Moon Village concept
The Moon Village concept was presented in 2015. "Village" in this context refers to international public and private investors, scientists, engineers, universities, and businessmen discussing interests and capabilities to build and share infrastructure on the Moon and in cislunar space for a variety of purposes. It is loosely organized by a nonprofit organization seeking to give a platform for an open international architecture and collaboration. Moon Village seeks to create a vision for international cooperation and the commercialization of space.The open nature of the concept would encompass any kind of lunar activities, whether robotic or astronauts, 3D printed habitats, refueling stations, relay orbiters, astronomy, exploiting resources, or tourism. The idea is to achieve at least some degree of coordination and exploitation of potential synergies and to create a permanent sustainable presence on the surface of the Moon, whether robotic or crewed. Jan Wörner, European Space Agency Director General until 2021, described in 2017 the Village simply as "an understanding, not a single facility". This initiative is meant as the first step in coming together as a species and developing the partnerships and "know how" before attempting to do the same on Mars. Wörner stateed that this vision of synergy can be as inspiring as the International Space Station but on a truly global, international-cooperation basis, and he proposed this approach as a replacement for the orbiting International Space Station.
China has expressed interest, and NASA has also expressed interest in the potential synergy it offers to the proposed Lunar Gateway space station. The private aerospace company Blue Origin has expressed early interest and offered to develop a cargo lander with a capacity of usable payload. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin has long urged Americans to cooperate with international partners to reach the Moon. The State Space Agency of Ukraine has agreed to uphold MVA principles and cooperate with the MVA to develop "sustainable habitation" of the Moon.
File:Future Moon base.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A depiction by ESA from 2018 of a future moonbase being shielded by in-situ utilized regolith
The concept is being organized, by a nonprofit organization established in November 2017 called the Moon Village Association. It is registered in Vienna, with the mission to create a global forum for the development of the Moon Village, and to potentially implement a permanent human settlement near the lunar south pole, taking advantage of near-continuous sunlight and nearby deposits of ice and other useful volatiles. In 2018, the Vienna University of Technology received sponsorship from ESA for a design workshop on the topic of the Moon Village. 35 master students have developed hypothetical scenarios for a future Moon village. The cooperative concept of the workshop led to a number of new themes, such as multipurpose mobile infrastructure, an astro-scientist training campus on the Moon, an experimental research food lab, and a lunar recycling facility.
Chinese concept
In 2020, China proposed the International Lunar Research Station, a somewhat similar proposal to the Moon Village, with Roscosmos and ESA showing interest. The first steps toward establishing the ILRS will be taken through Phase IV of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, consisting of Chang'e 6, 7, and 8, as well as the Russian missions, Luna 25, 26, and 27. Long-term robotic and short-term crew missions at the ILRS are expected to begin in the early 2030s. Roscosmos signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the creation of the ILRS with CNSA on March 9, 2021. There is a projected timeline stretching from the 2030s to 2045.The China National Space Administration has commenced the Chang'e program for exploring the Moon to investigate the prospect of lunar mining, specifically for mining isotope helium-3 for use as an energy source on Earth. CNSA director Luan Enjie has stated that humans must learn to leave Earth and "set up a self-sufficient extraterrestrial homeland".
On March 9, 2021, Russia and China signed a memorandum of understanding for the joint construction of the International Lunar Research Station around 2035.
Russian concept
The Russian Federal Space Agency has planned a fully robotic lunar base called Lunny Poligon. The project was planned for 2020, with an expected completion date of 2037. On March 9, 2021, Russia turned to cooperate with China and signed a memorandum of understanding for the joint construction of the International Lunar Research Station.United States concepts
The United states has run several attempts to design and in some cases develop lunar outposts and the needed missions, the first being from 1959, with the upcoming Artemis missions being the most advanced.Current: Artemis Program
Multi-Purpose Habitation module
Under a bilateral Moon cooperation agreement between NASA and ASI and within the Artemis Accords, Thales Alenia Space is designing a Multi-Purpose Habitation module. The MPH module will host Artemis astronauts and support both surface operations and scientific research experiments. It will operate both with and without the presence of a human crew and will have the ability to move on the surface.Soviet Union concepts (defunct)
Zvezda
Zvezda moonbase was a Soviet plan and project from 1962 to 1974 to construct a crewed moonbase as successor to the N1-L3 crewed lunar expedition program.The project was ordered by the Soviet space chief Korolyov to Barmin's
Spetcmash bureau. The project was named DLB Lunar Base in technical specifications and Zvezda in government documents. Unofficially, the project was called Barmingrad by its designers.
The realization of the project depended on key parts of the N1-L3 program – the N-1 superheavy launcher, all 4 launches of which failed between 1969 and 1972. Zvezda moonbase was canceled with the rest of the Soviet human lunar programs. All crewed Soviet lunar programs, including a Zvezda moonbase, had been classified as top secret and were only published in the glasnost epoch since 1990.