The panel looks toward an emerging space economy built around lunar resources, orbital manufacturing and eventually computing infrastructure beyond Earth. Some pieces already exist experimentally, while commercial Moon mining and large-scale orbital data centers remain future possibilities. NASA is actively developing technology to use lunar resources including water, oxygen and metals. In 2026, it awarded Interlune $6.9 million to advance prospecting tools for hydrogen and helium-3 as part of broader efforts to make lunar operations more self-sufficient. Making pharmaceuticals in orbit is already being tested. Varda has processed pharmaceutical materials in microgravity and returned them to Earth, while a 2026 peer-reviewed study demonstrated the successful recovery and stability of ritonavir processed in orbit.
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