Share.

33 Comments

  1. Then-Pay-9688 on

    It’s not even close. China will build a base on the moon before the US builds a single mile of real high speed rail on Earth. Suicide nation.

  2. The safe money is on China. They are less concerned about risk and will be more likely to charge forward.

  3. Fatus_Assticus on

    I don’t think it will be the USA government.  Debt issues are catching up and social security and Medicare are about to add to that.  Lots of head winds coming 

    China or a private company will get some thing up there in the next 10 to 20 years 

  4. China by far. We have the stupidest people in charge of the government and an even more stupid electorate

  5. Owl-Of-The-Night02 on

    If the US continues to lower the founding of scientific institutions amd especially NASA, then it’s China, not even close. Because, you know, the one to actually invest money is the one that will have achievements.

  6. NorthernViews on

    Everyone talks about China beating the U.S. to the moon again, tell me, have they even eclipsed SpaceX yet? I don’t hear anything about them actually being close to beating the US.

  7. elPatronSuarez on

    Whoever it is, the people building it are gonna be laborers from around the world.

  8. DragonandSpace on

    Sinceramente eu não sei se vamos sequer passar desse século quem dirá construir uma base na lua.

  9. If anyone thinks the United States can compete with China on long term goals like this at this point they have not been paying attention. This is the country that just woke up one day and decided to build 11x more High Speed Rail than the next highest country and actually did it. 46,000 km and counting in 20 years.

    The USA can’t even muster up the political will to properly maintain its bridges, much less dominate in space if it’s truly a competition between the two.

  10. Define a base? If you mean sustainable human presence, who knows. Probably a private company

  11. StartledPelican on

    I have to admit, I find it really impressive how astro-turfed the replies are.

    China does not currently have hardware being tested for a moon base. All of their work is focused on a “flags and footprints” mission with smaller landers/rockets that do not seem to be capable of anything more than Apollo has already done. While there is a plan for more capable hardware, that’s all it is right now – designs on “paper”.

    The United States, on the other hand, has one lander capable of building/sustaining a lunar base already launching and doing hardware tests (Starship) and another near the same state (Blue Moon Mk.2).

  12. Underwater_Karma on

    This entire thread is nothing but edgy children displaying shocking amounts of ignorance on the actual subject

  13. CBT7commander on

    So far the U.S. They are ahead both on schedule and tech. They have bigger launchers aswell as reusable ones that are far more mission ready than Chinese ones. It’s going to take some major increase in Chinese pace and major setback in the American program to get a Chinese base on the moon first

  14. FlyingBishop on

    China doesn’t have any plan to build a moonbase, they have a plan to make an Apollo-style landing. There have been rumblings that the US should back their moonbase plans and only do an Apollo-style landing. (This is essentially swapping Starship for a crewed BO Blue Moon Lander.)

    Based on overall trajectory, if Starship doesn’t manage a moon landing by 2033 probably no one will be even starting to build a moonbase before 2050. In fact any further delays in the Starship project could see it canceled and all moonbase aspirations abandoned, and China has nothing comparable in the works.

  15. AnotherAccount4This on

    Is this a Kalshi sponsored post? lol

    Right this second, the US is in a bad spot, so you’d say it’s China. In months and years? Who knows for sure.

  16. This is the 2nd day in a row that someone posted a SciAm article and changed the title.

    The actual title is much less sensational: “How to build a moon base”

  17. Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

    |Fewer Letters|More Letters|
    |——-|———|—|
    |[BO](/r/Space/comments/1rrzuap/stub/oa3k7wf “Last usage”)|Blue Origin (*Bezos Rocketry*)|
    |CST|(Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules|
    | |Central Standard Time (UTC-6)|
    |[DoD](/r/Space/comments/1rrzuap/stub/oa3ngwj “Last usage”)|US Department of Defense|
    |[EMU](/r/Space/comments/1rrzuap/stub/oa3ng1d “Last usage”)|Extravehicular Mobility Unit (spacesuit)|
    |[ESA](/r/Space/comments/1rrzuap/stub/oa3q1mh “Last usage”)|European Space Agency|
    |[EVA](/r/Space/comments/1rrzuap/stub/oa3ng1d “Last usage”)|Extra-Vehicular Activity|
    |[HLS](/r/Space/comments/1rrzuap/stub/oa3ng1d “Last usage”)|[Human Landing System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System) (Artemis)|
    |[SLS](/r/Space/comments/1rrzuap/stub/oa3q1mh “Last usage”)|Space Launch System heavy-lift|

    |Jargon|Definition|
    |——-|———|—|
    |[Raptor](/r/Space/comments/1rrzuap/stub/oa3fjwv “Last usage”)|[Methane-fueled rocket engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptor_(rocket_engine_family)) under development by SpaceX|
    |[Starliner](/r/Space/comments/1rrzuap/stub/oa3obfj “Last usage”)|Boeing commercial crew capsule [CST-100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CST-100_Starliner)|
    |[Starlink](/r/Space/comments/1rrzuap/stub/oa3ngwj “Last usage”)|SpaceX’s world-wide satellite broadband constellation|
    |[hypergolic](/r/Space/comments/1rrzuap/stub/oa3fyp1 “Last usage”)|A set of two substances that ignite when in contact|

    Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.

    —————-
    ^(11 acronyms in this thread; )[^(the most compressed thread commented on today)](/r/Space/comments/1rqur0n)^( has 28 acronyms.)
    ^([Thread #12239 for this sub, first seen 12th Mar 2026, 20:13])
    ^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/Space) [^[Contact]](https://hachyderm.io/@Two9A) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)

  18. China as they have a will to and unified forces pushing for it. In the US we have archaic government contractors, that stop inventing anything. 40 years ago and just sucked up money, then when others came along. Who were innovative, they tried to stop them instead of becoming better. They then bribed congress, to pay them billions. To not make new engines but use 40 year old engines, with known issues. A “Starliner” that almost killed two astronauts and should of never flown. Bulit from a bullshit 25 year old design, when we have SpaceX doing new things. The choice should of been obvious, now after all the blunders. Our answer is keep throwing money at everything but the obvious solutions. Then take money away from NASA when they need it most. Its so sad that this is the case now. Basically if SpaceX get a heavy working well before China and China is just using SpaceX designs. Its race of experiential designs at this point. Then the US win if not China wins, at this point unless China really messes up its them.

  19. buttscootinbastard on

    100% China. They’re so much better at large Engineering projects. And their Government is actually invested in this. America is leaving the heavy lifting up to private companies.

  20. Puzzled-Story3953 on

    Who cares? I don’t understand why it would matter what country does it first. People need to get their heads out of their nationalist asses and focus on the science and exploration.

  21. China. Obviously.

    The US is in the middle of a scientific purge. The modern intellectual equivalent of the Salem witch trials. We are dismantling the basic foundations of scientific advancement and replacing them with influencers and dipshits who are actively hostile toward truth.

    The only reason the US would want to build a moon base is if Elon and Thiel wanted a moon vacation palace or a moon based data center. But we’re gutting NASA, so we’d have to buy space from the Russians just to attempt it.

    We are actively regressing.

    Meanwhile Chinese infrastructure is improving, their technology is advancing, they’re pouring money into research and development and will leave the US in the dust within a decade.

    Americas long tradition of being stubbornly anti-intellectual will get it relegated to “has been” superpower status.