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China built its space station Tiangong in three years after being excluded from the ISS program. It landed on the Moon in 2020 and 2024, returning samples from areas with high helium-3. Now the fight is over rules, resources, and who decides what happens on the Moon.
In this short, aerospace designer Glen Martin explains how China’s program moves from high-speed rail and grid power at home to the Moon: far-side lunar samples (via a relay network and nuclear-powered rover), a 2029 crewed landing plan, and why helium-3 matters.
We break down the rules and risks: who gets to mine the Moon, what a UN Space Resources Treaty (draft due 2027) might change, and how U.S. domestic space laws could drive a Wild-West approach.
We cover why China built Tiangong after being blocked from the ISS, and what’s so important about the lunar south pole’s “rim of eternal light.”
Keep Thinking On Paper.
Cheers,
Mark & Jeremy.
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TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Chinese Infrastructure
(00:47) Bringing Russia to ISS
(01:21) We Blocked The Chinese
(01:41) Tiangong & 2029 Moon Landings
(02:22) The Global Politics Of Space
(03:36) The Lunar South Pole
(04:07) The United Nations
(04:41) The Moon Wild West
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