Toward Sustainable Lunar Exploration: Building the Infrastructure for a Lasting Presence Beyond Earth
At spaceNEXT 2026, leaders from the United States, Japan, and Europe gathered in the Vault Theater for a forward-looking discussion on what it will take to make lunar exploration sustainable — not as a one-off achievement, but as an enduring economic and operational presence.
Moderated by Yosuke Kaneko, Space Attaché at the Embassy of Japan, the session brought together:
Jim Frelk, Senior Vice President of Data Services, Intuitive Machines
Hideari Kamiya, Executive Vice President, iSpace
Roberto Provera, Director of New Initiatives, Partnerships & Innovation for Exploration and Science, Thales Alenia Space
The discussion focused on a central question: how do we move from returning to the Moon to staying there?
From Policy to Practical Systems
Kaneko opened by referencing the evolving U.S. space policy framework, which emphasizes milestones for returning humans to the Moon while also prioritizing sustainability, affordability, and long-term presence.
Jim Frelk framed the moment in strategic terms. The new space policy, he explained, extends beyond civil exploration to encompass commercial and national security space. It reflects a recognition that cislunar space is becoming operational territory — and that infrastructure must precede permanence.
Landing is not enough.
To sustain activity, the Moon requires communications networks, navigation systems, logistics chains, and commercial service models.
Intuitive Machines, Frelk explained, began as a transportation and lunar lander company — delivering one of the first commercial landings on the Moon. But the company’s role has expanded significantly. Through a major NASA contract, it is now deploying a lunar communications and navigation constellation — essentially laying the groundwork for GPS-like capability around the Moon.
For Frelk, communications and position-navigation-timing (PNT) are foundational. Without them, autonomy, safety, robotic operations, and eventual human presence cannot scale.
Speed vs. Sustainability
One of the central tensions discussed was urgency versus durability.
Artemis milestones create pressure to move quickly. Geopolitical competition — particularly with China’s expanding lunar ambitions — adds additional urgency.
But sustainability requires deliberate system-building.
Frelk described the shift in U.S. contracting models as key to accelerating progress. Fixed-price commercial contracts and service-based agreements allow companies to move faster than traditional procurement structures would allow.
Still, he emphasized that the goal is not another Apollo moment — a few landings followed by retreat — but a sustained presence supported by layered infrastructure: communications, cargo delivery, navigation, power systems, and logistics.
The Moon is not just a destination. It is becoming a platform.
Japan’s Expanding Role in Lunar Infrastructure
Hideari Kamiya described iSpace’s mission as expanding humanity’s future beyond Earth through infrastructure development.
Founded in 2010, iSpace now operates in Tokyo, Denver, and Luxembourg, integrating talent and supply chains across regions. The company has successfully demonstrated lunar orbit injection twice and is planning future missions, including launches in both Japan and the United States in 2027.
Kamiya emphasized that technology readiness remains a challenge across the lunar market. Recurring, repeatable missions are essential to raising reliability and reducing risk.
He outlined iSpace’s approach to lunar communications and PNT across three roles:
As a user of lunar communications networks
As an integrator connecting regional demand and infrastructure
As a contributor, exploring how orbital transfer vehicles and payload delivery could support broader constellations
Interoperability, he stressed, is critical. Systems developed by the United States, Europe, and Japan must work together seamlessly if the lunar economy is to scale.
He also highlighted Asia-Pacific supply chains — including advanced materials and nuclear technologies — as future contributors to sustainable lunar infrastructure.
Europe’s Gateway and Surface Strategy
Roberto Provera detailed Europe’s substantial lunar portfolio through Thales Alenia Space.
The company is heavily involved in the Lunar Gateway, contributing multiple pressurized modules and structural elements. It is also developing a two-ton European cargo lander and working toward a lunar surface habitat capable of extending astronaut stays up to one month — a foundational step toward sustained habitation.
Provera emphasized sustainability beyond hardware.
Common operating norms, regulatory clarity, cost discipline, and shared infrastructure are essential. Logistics chains must be economically viable. Surface mobility and cargo transport must be offered at sustainable price points if commercial growth is to emerge.
He also addressed Europe’s Moonlight lunar communications initiative, describing it as a service-based model — a shift toward offering infrastructure as a shared utility rather than mission-specific systems.
Importantly, Provera discussed cooperation with Intuitive Machines to ensure interoperability between U.S. and European lunar communications networks. Rather than compete in isolation, the companies are aligning systems to enable shared use.
Cooperation in a Competitive Era
While geopolitical competition was acknowledged — particularly regarding access to limited orbital positions and strategic locations in cislunar space — the tone of the panel was collaborative.
Kaneko underscored that Artemis differs fundamentally from Apollo.
Apollo was national.
Artemis is international and commercial.
The emerging lunar architecture is being shaped not just by governments, but by companies working across borders — aligning standards, building interoperable systems, and creating service-based infrastructure.
Sustainability, the panel agreed, is not simply about surviving the lunar night. It is about building economic models, regulatory frameworks, and technological systems that make the Moon operational.
The Moon is no longer a symbolic objective.
It is becoming critical infrastructure.
And this time, it is being built together.
