Star Metro - Artemis II Success Marks the Start of $T+ Moon Industry

SAN DIEGO, CA / ACCESS Newswire / April 10, 2026 / When the Orion capsule splashes down off the coast of San Diego, it will mark more than the completion of humanity's most ambitious lunar mission in half a century. It marks the start of the world's next industrial revolution.

The Artemis II mission is thanks to worldwide contributions from 61 Artemis Accords signatories as well as the first Canadian astronaut to orbit the moon, Colonel Jeremy Hansen. The mission's success serves as a global call to action for the next generation of engineers, financiers, and visionaries to participate in an open and collaborative cislunar economy.

To those questioning the multi-billion-dollar price tag of deep space exploration, American DeepTech and the Center for Space and Aviation (Switzerland and Liechtenstein) provide a definitive answer: Yes, it is worth it.

"The Artemis II mission has made it clear this is no longer about flags and footprints. This is about the transition beyond exploration to building a long-term base on the moon and bringing home meaningful solutions for earth," said Dr. Anna Brady-Estevez, Founding Partner of American DeepTech, a venture and infrastructure investment firm. "The mission's success validates the deep-space hardware and call to build the infrastructure, what we call 'Moonfra' required to support a permanent human presence on the lunar surface, and a broader space economy projected to reach $1.8 trillion dollars by 2035."

The new space age is about bringing powerful solutions and advantages back home to Earth. For healthcare, this includes using the moon's microgravity to speed the development of biomedicines to fight cancer as well as cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. For the tech industry, the moon has a wide range of resources less available on Earth including rare earth elements used in electronics and helium 3 which is core to clean energy generation, quantum cooling, medical imaging and sensing.

As we pivot from the mission's data collecting loop around the moon to building a permanent $20 billion moon base, American DeepTech is emphasizing that the current "1:1" equity-and-government-budget model is insufficient for building out the moon.

"We must bring terrestrial financial leverage to space infrastructure," said Dr. Brady-Estevez. "If we can lever up a $20 billion moon base budget with 80% leverage, we enable the construction of $100 billion in infrastructure-grade assets. This is how we move from a government outpost to a functioning industrial ecosystem."

To build out factories, data centers, resource extraction and more on the moon and other bodies, much higher levels of power would be beneficial. Solar already plays a major role in space, including providing power to the ISS. However, ongoing baseload power is required to power operations through the lunar night which lasts 14 earth days.

American DeepTech is now in the process of incubating nuclear tech for both terrestrial and space applications. "We believe there are tremendous opportunities in Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), and we are engaged with nuclear entrepreneurs to build out opportunities and solutions in this space."

Activating the Transatlantic 'Moonfra' Bridge: The Switzerland-Liechtenstein Corridor

American DeepTech is proud to celebrate the Artemis II milestone alongside the Center for Space and Aviation (CSA) of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Based in Zurich, the CSA serves as a nexus for consolidating European space economies into the global "Moonfra" and Space Tech supply chain.

With 61 Artemis signatories now unified under a single framework, the standout strengths of our Swiss and Liechtenstein partners provide the precision engineering and policy capabilities required for lunar industrialization. From Swiss biotechnology, quantum systems, and autonomous robotics to Liechtenstein's leadership in space law, cybersecurity, and project finance, this partnership has potential to accelerate the ecosystem.

"The CSA is one of Europe's most mature ecosystems for end-to-end space research," said Dr. Anna Brady-Estevez, Founding Partner of American DeepTech. "With over 500 specialists and 20 years of microgravity experience, the CSA provides the industrial-grade foundation needed to transition from orbital experiments to permanent lunar infrastructure."

"The American DeepTech team has a prior proven track record of scaling breakthroughs into tens of billions in valuation and far larger transformations," said Prof. Oliver Ullrich, Chairman of the CSA, "As we position Switzerland and Liechtenstein as the European gateway for the global space community, having a partner with such deep experience in NASA, ISS, NSF and U.S. Space Force portfolios is invaluable for bringing transformative technologies to market."

Through this partnership, American DeepTech and the CSA are creating a transatlantic bridge for trade, research and logistics critical making visionary space technology of the future a reality.

ABOUT AMERICAN DEEPTECH: American DeepTech is a venture and infrastructure investment firm dedicated to scaling frontier technologies into foundational global assets. The firm bridges the gap between early-stage innovation and commercial infrastructure in AI, space tech, and advanced energy. The leadership team includes former senior officials from NASA, the US Space Force, and the National Science Foundation, who have collectively managed R&D in over $150 billion in space assets, multi-billion-dollar terrestrial infrastructure strategies and corporate investments, and trillion plus transformation work.

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SOURCE: American DeepTech

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M.Johnson--SMC