China talking with European Space Agency about moon outpost
This to me is a good news as it help keep the topic alive, but I doubt that this effort will be very successive (I wish it the best). It will likely get too expensive quickly. Both participants are bureaucratic (afraid of failures) and suspicious of each other (secrecy, national pride) which will also ramp up costs. We probably can set up a base now at a huge cost to set up and operation, but it will likely fizzle soon to next budget crisis.<p>I think to bootstrap a useful permanent base on the moon or Mars (that can grow, provides safe and efficient transport) we need to accept <i>significantly</i> higher risk to life, say 20%, at the initial setup / prototyping period to allow rapid development and testing of new technologies for all stages of the process (flight, space stations, energy, mining, etc.). I think enough qualified individuals will gladly accept this for a chance to fly, but regulators will likely kill this if they consider it not safe enough.<p>Private companies are more likely to achieve this, especially if they are not hamstrung by regulations. My 2c.