In one scenario, NASA could provide the manned Orion deep space craft which would be launched with the heavy-lift rocket, Space Launch System, while the private sector could provide lunar landing vehicles and the habitats that would comprise a lunar base. The lunar base would be established and owned by a commercial enterprise and NASA would be a core customer leasing space.

The Bigelow plan also calls for establishing a regime respecting private property rights on the moon, necessary if any commercial entity plans to start mining operations and other money making enterprises. This would likely require some kind of international agreement on the scale of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 that prohibited claims of sovereignty on other worlds.

With Chang’e-3 moon landing on Dec. 14, China is doing a great job pursuing the Apollo model of space exploration. NASA could do the same. And if NASA were to partner with commercial entities it would do even better. The strength, experience and resources of NASA would be married to the flexibility and imagination of the commercial sector. If that is made to happen, America would be able to leave China in the lunar dust in the new space race.