The lunar economy, complete with its own supply chain, may seem like a distant concept, but its foundations are already here. It will center around using the moon’s natural resources to construct scientific infrastructure on its surface, as well as develop capacity for future space exploration (the moon is a potential spaceport for more distant destinations, such as Mars).
There are many countries and companies vying to be part of this new lunar gold rush. Among them is private space firm Firefly Aerospace, based in Texas. Its Blue Ghost 1 mission, which launched on January 15, has just shown what the first stage of a delivery system between Earth and