The moon is all the rage these days. China wants to send people there. So too does the United States and NASA. In fact, just about every country with a space program has some sort of lunar ambition that they hope will play out over the next few years.

Now, there's a new entrant in this new space race, a nonprofit organization called the Open Lunar Foundation. Based in San Francisco, it's a group made up of tech executives and engineers—many of them with former ties to NASA—who have serious ambitions to create a lunar settlement.

The driving ethos behind the foundation is to start a development that would not be beholden to a particular country or billionaire. Instead, as the group's name suggests, Open Lunar wants to create technology for exploring and living on the moon as a type of collaborative effort.

"Our highest ambition is catalyzing and enabling a peaceful and cooperative lunar settlement," said Chelsea Robinson, the chief of operations and staff for Open Lunar.