I belong to a generation whose early life was shaped by the narrative of space conquest, culminating in humanity's arrival on the Moon and the idea of space exploration as one of humanity's greatest achievements. The current international framework, based on principles such as the peaceful use of space and its status as humanity's common heritage, is insufficient in the face of these new commercial dynamics. This new reality forces us to rethink our relationship with space exploration. Its conquest can no longer be understood with the innocence of the past. Among these are the presence of strategic resources like rare earths, essential for modern technology; Helium-3, considered a potential source of clean energy for the future; and water at the lunar poles, crucial for sustaining human missions and producing fuel. In this context, space mining is becoming increasingly tangible, but not without challenges. That feat solidified a vision where humanity, beyond its differences, was capable of achieving the extraordinary. In childhood, names like Laika, the first dog in space; Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova, the first man and woman in orbit; Alexei Leonov, the first to perform a spacewalk; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first to walk on the Moon, fueled a deeply inspiring imagination. However, that innocent vision has begun to fade. The high cost of these operations limits participation to a select group of nations and companies with significant financial and technological capabilities, which could amplify existing inequalities and concentrate benefits among a few actors. On the environmental front, while the exploitation of resources off-planet could alleviate pressure on degraded Earth ecosystems, there are also indirect risks, such as the impact of launches and the growing generation of orbital debris. This is compounded by a vacuum in legal and ethical frameworks. The new missions show that the Moon has ceased to be just a scientific or romantic symbol to become a strategic space for global competition. After decades of disinterest, the return to the Moon is driven by concrete reasons. Technologically, it involves overcoming enormous barriers: locating viable deposits, developing autonomous systems capable of operating, and ensuring the viability of transporting materials back to Earth. The economic implications are also significant. Today, we risk replicating, beyond Earth, the same mistakes that have marked the exploitation of resources on our planet. The real challenge is not to go further, but to do it better.
