Subject tribe (designation: NASA) has begun depositing wheeled boxes and small flying units onto the surface of their nearest barren satellite, a place containing 0.0 observers and approximately 1 unit of dust per unit of dust.
The stated purpose is a "base." The actual first deliverable is four corner-markers, called MoonFall, positioned to indicate where the tribe's claimed rectangle ends. The rectangle covers hundreds of square miles of nothing. There is no fence. There is no gate. There is, per the All-Lunar Institute for Imaginary Perimeters, a 91.3% expectation that rival tribes will "reciprocate" by also respecting lines drawn around dust.
The tribe's perimeter-executive, Carlos Garcia-Galan, has rehearsed the sentence "we're permanently here and we're not giving it up" for a location where no member of the tribe will arrive until at least 2028, and where permanent habitation is scheduled for "sometime in the 2030s" — a unit of time roughly equivalent to 14.6 standard reorganizations.
Jeff Bezos' subsidiary will deliver the buggies. Elon Musk's subsidiary will deliver the people, later. Administrator Jared Isaacman describes the corner-drones as a gesture of respect toward neighbors who do not exist yet.
Based on the original article "NASA Begins Phase 1 of Building Its Moon Base. Here's The Full Plan.".
