I’ve identified five major players in the new space race: The U.S., China, EU, India, and Russia. They all have several parallel programs in planning or underway.
Space Stations
The International Space Station (ISS) is expected to continue operating through 2030. NASA plans to partner with the private sector to replace it currently looking at contracts including Axiom Space, Voyager Space, or Blue Origin. In effect NASA is working its way out of the space station business, while still acknowledging a space station as imperative to future missions.
China was locked out of the ISS because of the Chinese military involvement in the project. As a result, China has launched its own space station which is about 1/3 the size of ISS.
Like NASA, the European Space agency has signed on to the new commercial Starlab space station that is launching in 2028. It will be a tighter fit for astronauts as it is actually smaller than ISS.
Russia is building their own space station (ROSS0 that they hope to have in orbit by 2028. Forecasts related to this and other exploration plans are obviously being impacted by the war with Ukraine.
India is also in the planning stages for their own space station they expect to have in orbit by 2035.
The Moon
NASA by 2040 expects to establish a permanent settlement (the Lunar Homestead project). They plan to send 3D printers to the moon to build the structures “using lunar concreted made from moon rock fragments”.
China intends to have a manned mission to the Moon by 2030, and a permanent research station on the Moon by 2035.
The ESA likewise has a goal of landing a European astronaut on the moon before 2030. They have plans to have the equivalent of a gas station built on the moon for other research projects. Although they have extensive design plans for a permanent moon base I could not find a timeline for its execution.
Russia has plans to have a permanent base on the Moon by 2040. I’m not very confident in this stated plan based on current circumstances.
India plans to land an astronaut on the moon by 2035.
Mars
NASA seems pretty satisfied with their unmanned research for Mars and beyond. However, they have several plans tied to a launch of a manned mission in the late 2030s. If it happens at all it is much more likely to occur in the 2040s.
ESA does have plans to launch a manned mission to Mars by 2040. Likewise Russia has plans to launch a manned mission to Mars between 2035 and 2040.
Summary
“United we stand, divided we fall” Although getting the U.S., China, E.U., India and Russia to cooperate on the future of space exploration is far fetched, it might not be far fetched to unite the efforts of the U.S., the E.U., India, and some of the other players such as Japan, France, and Australia to join together and pool resources and objectives for the Moon and Mars expeditions in particular. Such cooperation could accelerate timelines by years and cut costs by tens of billions of dollars. If we go all the way from hope to wish, imagine what we could accomplish if we could include China and Russia in such a united front. Instead of helping, in this case I think politics are hurting exploration and development.