Inside the biggest battle for cislunar space area between Earth and the moon with 100 lunar missions - Daily Mail

Elon Musk, co-founder and chief executive officer of SpaceX started the company in 2002 with the goal of reducing the cost of space launches and making it possible for humans to live on other planets

Both the US and China have ambitious lunar exploration programs in the works, with plans to land astronauts on the moon and build habitats and infrastructure in orbit.

While increased access to space brings many benefits, it also raises the potential for tensions over competing interests which could have significant economic and political consequences.

'During the Cold War, the space race was for national prestige and power,' said Kaitlyn Johnson, deputy director and a fellow of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies to NBC News.

The sudden increase in traffic is due to launch costs becoming cheaper thanks to better technology and more competition driving down the price of firing objects into orbit.

Water ice could help sustain human colonies on the Moon, or be split into oxygen and hydrogen to fuel rockets heading into deep space.