Before You Begin: Building a Home on the Moon

Introduction · Series date: September 7, 2026

From a feather falling beside a hammer to a light left on for the next crew, this series explores the science, skills, and people needed for a lasting lunar presence.

A note on the stories

Historical events have sources beside them. Future scenes are imagined and labeled in the articles. They illustrate real needs; they are not reports of events that have happened. Program dates describe plans as checked for this edition, not promises of delivery.

A note on sources

Direct links appear beside sourced claims. The Deloitte economic report cited in Articles 28 and 29 was supplied for this project; the cited pages are 44–50. Its original PDF is not bundled here. Its estimates are scenarios, not annual market size or guaranteed returns.

The manuscript records its research check as September 7, 2026. That date identifies the edition's source review. It does not turn a planned mission into a completed mission, and it does not guarantee that an agency's schedule will remain the same. Readers can follow the source links beside claims to distinguish the evidence from the possible future described around it.

How the series is arranged

The 32 numbered articles remain in the order of the supplied manuscript. They begin with the purpose of returning to the Moon and move through transport, infrastructure, construction, resources, life inside a habitat, governance, economics, and science. This introduction is a reader's guide; it is separate from those 32 articles.

Use the next-article link below to begin with “We Are Not Just Returning to the Moon—We Are Preparing to Stay.” The series contents page provides a route back to every chapter. Previous and next links let you continue without searching for the next installment.

Read the companion series

Building the Lunar Economy takes up the next set of questions: what useful work, services, discoveries, and public benefits might a functioning lunar base support? Its scenarios have their own evidence limits. Read the two collections as connected explorations of requirements and possibilities, with the distinction between demonstrated results and imagined scenes kept visible.