Could there ever be a military stand-off on the moon? Nasa/Ryan Wills
CROUCHED in an area of permanent shadow, the soldier looks out over a聽landscape of craters and dust in a聽thousand shades of grey. A few kilometres away, the enemy鈥檚 transportation buggy is parked in what they must have thought was a discrete location. But as they should have learned in training, tracking enemies is easier on the moon because tyre marks aren鈥檛 eroded by the elements. Now all聽it will take is a squeeze of the trigger.
For now, scenes like this are, of course, distant science fiction. But it is fair to say military organisations are keeping an increasingly watchful eye on the moon. The US, Russia and China 鈥 competing powers on Earth 鈥 have ambitions to send missions back to the moon in the next decade or so. They will聽all be heading for roughly the same place:聽the moon鈥檚 south polar region, with its聽precious resources, such as water ice. Even聽before that, these nations have been sending up a steady stream of satellites.
What would the military’s role be on the moon?
With this renewed push for the moon, and聽the lucrative returns that might result, military interest is inevitably following. 鈥淭he United States is certainly aware the moon could have tremendous long-term economic potential,鈥 says , a defence expert at the American Foreign Policy Council, a US think tank. 鈥淭he military doesn鈥檛 want an outpost to be threatened due to the lack of a sheriff.鈥 Yet even in these tentative early stages, there are concerns that military activity…
