NASA is building a permanent moon base and apparently they're not messing around this time

Remember when moving to the moon was just something eccentric billionaires tweeted about at 2am? Yeah, NASA is done letting that be the whole vibe. The agency just dropped some very serious lunar real estate plans, and honestly, it slaps.

According to The Verge, NASA announced on Tuesday a series of upcoming missions to the Moon's South Pole region - the kind of neighbourhood that, while extremely cold and extremely far, apparently has solid long-term potential. The whole operation is designed to lay the groundwork for a crewed Artemis landing in 2028, and NASA is calling these early missions "the first of more than a dozen missions that will be announced this year." A dozen. This year. Slow down, NASA, some of us are still processing James Webb telescope images.

So what's actually launching?

The first of three planned missions is called Moon Base I - a name that sounds like the opening level of a video game, which is appropriate because this is basically humanity speedrunning space colonisation. It's launching no earlier than fall 2026, and it'll ride aboard Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander. On board? NASA payloads including something called the Stereo Camera for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies. Yes, that is a real instrument. Yes, scientists get to name things too and they are doing their best.

Why the south pole though?

The Moon's south pole is basically the hot new neighbourhood everyone is moving to - except it's permanently shadowed, potentially sitting on water ice deposits, and could serve as a crucial resource hub for future deep space missions. Think of it less like a vacation home and more like a very strategic logistics hub that also happens to be 384,000 kilometres away.

Is this actually happening this time?

Look, we've been promised moon stuff before. But the sheer volume of missions being lined up - with more announcements coming throughout 2025 - suggests NASA is operating with a level of momentum that feels different from previous lunar hype cycles. The fact that they're already locking in commercial partners like Blue Origin and rolling out hardware timelines is either a really promising sign, or the most elaborate PowerPoint deck in human history.

Either way, we're watching closely. And secretly hoping they name the base something cooler than "Moon Base I." Moon Base Sigma, at minimum. Come on, NASA. You've got time.