Look up at the sky at the moment, and on a cloudless night you’ll see Mars, shining red between midnight and dawn. It’s the perfect time of year for stargazers, and this summer Mars fever is in the air. One might only have to wait a few years before one of these players gets its big leg up on the "Big Three":

Japan’s Space Agency. It has a plan to jump-start lunar exploration, get a manned mission to Mars in the 2020s, and set up bases on the Red Planet as early as 2023. And Amazon, not really a space guy, says it's interested. "I'm an Amazon company guy now, but I'm overseas," Bezos said. "I would love to have access to some Moon basins."

It has a plan to jump-start lunar exploration, get a manned mission to Mars in the 2020s, and set up bases on the Red Planet as early as 2023. And Amazon, not really a space guy, says it's interested. "I'm an Amazon company guy now, but I'm overseas," Bezos said. "I would love to have access to some Moon basins." United Launch Alliance. Launch its Atlas 5 rockets, flying them as an "all-American" company that now includes companies from Mali, Pakistan, Cuba, and the Virgin Mary's of the galaxy. Launch requires MDA resources (celestial logic being that Mars is not scarce), and it’ll also have a customer on the Moon in 2020.

Launch its Atlas 5 rockets, flying them as an "all-American" company that now includes companies from Mali, Pakistan, Cuba, and the Virgin Mary's of the galaxy. Launch requires MDA resources (celestial logic being that Mars is not scarce), and it’ll also have a customer on the Moon in 2020. Microsoft. The screen creators are obviously buying up lunar e-commerce initiatives, though how deep they think this obsession goes is unclear.

The screen creators are obviously buying up lunar e-commerce initiatives, though how deep they think this obsession goes is unclear. Google. Well, sure, the search boss paid a visit to Mars a few years back, photographed the landscape front from Earth. But Moon IRL? Not even the Google Lunar X Prize a few years ago could change their minds.

These companies are obviously taking their half of the moon. It may very well be short-term. In future decades we will live in a space economy moving ever outward, sometimes to a lunar base (Google), and sometimes far beyond home….. Moving marvels and knickknacks into space is great, but it won't be continuous prosperity here on Earth. Sweet dreams for
g