"Space Lawyer and Planetary Scientist Discuss Sharing Benefits of New Lunar Exploration"

The discovery of water on the Moon has made it feasible to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon, and both the US and China have plans to do so. The US Artemis program aims to build a base on the Moon and a space station in orbit around it, while China plans to establish a permanent presence on the Moon before 2030. The use of lunar resources to accomplish these goals raises legal questions that are being debated in international venues like the United Nations, but the Outer Space Treaty lays out a framework for how nations are supposed to act in space.