In the wake of that failure, the Chandrayaan-3 mission plan will re-attempt a soft landing. Because Vikram (and its rover) were expected to run investigations that would help characterize the water ice reserves at the lunar south pole, it’s expected Chandrayaan-3 will carry out these same studies. Should India stick the landing, it will be just the fourth country in history to put a spacecraft on the surface of the moon.

The last mission under the Luna program was in 1976, when the world still had a Soviet Union. Eager to make sure it’s got a stake in the 21st-century moon rush, Russia is resurrecting the program with a slate of new missions focused on enabling future mining operations. Luna 25 will prove out new landing technologies and drill into the surface of the south pole to study the composition of the moon’s soil for water ice, helium-3, carbon and nitrogen, precious metals, and any other interesting resources. Luna 26 is an orbiter that will survey the landscape from above to try to get a sense of where these resources might lie. And Luna 27 is another lander headed to the south pole to specifically prospect for water ice.

Many US space companies are eager to expand their operations and participate in various lunar activities, whether it’s mining or tourism or research. A key goal for NASA is to use Artemis to provide the private sector opportunities to go to the moon. Under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, private companies will deliver dozens of NASA-sponsored and privately developed science and tech payloads to the lunar service. The first two missions, launching in July 2021, will send Astrobotic Technologies’ Peregrine lander and Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, respectively. Both will deliver a plethora of probes, robots, and rovers to look for water ice and other resources, and test technologies critical to robotic and crewed Artemis missions later in the decade.

Japanese company ispace is no stranger to big ideas (it once suggested putting a giant billboard on the surface of the moon), but it hasn’t had much success in actually getting off the ground. Its lunar program, Hakuto-R, is now being run in a partnership with Draper Labs. The two companies plan to launch a lunar lander in October 2021, and a lander and a rover combo in March 2023. Both missions will seek to validate the landing technologies of the spacecraft,  and scout for potential water ice and key resources that could be mined.