Why a 2020 recruitment ad casually mentioned “foreign powers” building bases on the dark side of the moon, and what they might really be telling us.
Pretty sure this Space Force recruitment video dropped in 2020, but it recently found it’s way to me for the first time, and at the 1:30 mark, they drop this gem:
“When foreign powers can build bases on the dark side of the Moon”
Excuse me?
What did they just say?
Since when is that a thing? And why toss it into a recruitment ad like it’s common knowledge? Are they trying to make recruits think they’ll be planting the next lunar flag?
Are they hinting that China’s already done it? If not China, then who are we talking about?
Possible Reasons For Making This Statement.
1. Psychological hook for recruits
It’s marketing. They want to spark curiosity and a sense of urgency, “The game’s already advanced, you’re late to the party, better join up if you want to help.” It’s the same tactic the military’s always used, except instead of “the enemy’s got more tanks,” it’s “the enemy’s got moon real estate.”
2. Strategic ambiguity
They don’t outright say who these “foreign powers” are or whether the bases actually exist, which is clever. It allows them to imply capability without confirming it. That way, even if it’s purely hypothetical, the statement still plants a seed in the public mind that others may already be entrenched up there.
3. China & Russia in the subtext
By 2020, China had landed Chang’e-4 on the far side of the moon, and both China and Russia had announced plans for permanent lunar stations. So while they’re not outright saying “China has a base on the moon,” the line primes the audience to associate “foreign powers” with those nations.
4. Propaganda value
If you tell the public, “the other guys already have moon bases”, it justifies massive budgets, high-tech R&D, and the existence of the Space Force itself. Even if those “bases” are just in a PowerPoint deck somewhere.
5. Possible soft disclosure
There’s a less cynical read: maybe it’s a “recruitment video as soft drip” moments. The military has a habit of sliding real capabilities or intelligence into public-facing material long before the official admission, a way of normalizing an idea before they tell you straight.
My personal opinion
One thing’s for sure, with how much planning goes into these videos, there’s no way they accidentally blurted it out.
They’re either speaking hypothetically to stir up competition, implying that China, Russia, or both have such ambitions to justify more funding, or they’re running a public acclimation campaign, better known by the general public as predictive programming, for things they know are coming in the near future.
If that line wasn’t purely hypothetical… then the real question is:
Who’s up there, how long have they been there, and why is the first we hear of it in a recruitment ad?
What do you think?