On January 14, 2004, ten days after the landing of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, President George W.
Bush announced a new plan for NASA''s future, dubbed the Vision for Space Exploration. According to this plan, humankind will return to the moon by 2018, and set up outposts as a testbed and potential resource for future missions.
On December 4, 2006, NASA announced they were planning to build a permanent moon base. NASA plans to start building the moonbase by 2020, and by 2024, have a fully functional base that would allow for crew rotations like the International Space Station. Additionally, NASA plans to collaborate and partner with other nations for this project.
Russia also expressed its intention to reinitiate their moon program when in Aug31, 2007 it announced " we will be ready for a manned flight to the Moon in 2025, and an inhabited station could be built there between 2027 and 2032”.
In the decade of seventy of the last century, USA and USSR were the only two space powers. Two decades later, several countries joined in the space club and they were Europe, Japan, China and India. Europe sent an unmanned space probe, called SMART-1, which impacted on moon on September 03, 2006 and currently sending pictures. Recently, in October, 2007, Japan sent its unmanned lunar explorer called KAGUYA” (SELENE) to circle the moon and take photographs. It is also planning a manned lunar expedition by 2020. On 24th October, 2007, China launched its first unmanned lunar satellite, Chang''e One. The mission is the start of a programme to land a space rover on the moon in 2012 and astronauts by 2020. India’s moon mission is called Chandrayaan and the first unmanned lunar spacecraft is planned to orbit the moon during April,2008 at 100 Km altitude to take imageries. India is also planning for a manned lunar mission.
The question arises why this renewed interest on moon to cost billions of dollars after a gap of nearly three decades. This renewed interest is currently seen to centre on factors such as:
· Locating alternative energy source
· Space tourism and possible habitation
· Alternative launch site for space explorations
The alternative energy scenario is explained by a thinking process that the moon will become important 40-50 years after the earth masters fusion energy as there will be no more oil to burn for energy production and coal will be phased out due to environmental concerns. Then we will want to mix Deuterium from the oceans of earth with the Helium-3 (an isotope), which the solar wind deposits on the moon (a process going on for millions of years) to produce the ideal Fusion Reactor fuel mix for nuclear power generation. The alternative launch site is emerging due to lower gravity on moon (around one sixth to that on earth) to support space ventures with less powerful rockets.
References NASA – Wikipedia, free encyclopedia
Human Space Exploration: The Next 50 Years, By Michael D. Griffin, NASA Administrator, March 2007
Moon Daily, The Discovery, Exploration and Application of Luna, Moscow (AFP) Aug 31, 2007
Aviation Week, March 21,2007
Proceeding of the 58th International Astronautical Congress- 2007, Hyderabad, India
Website of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Website of European Space Agency (ESA)
Website of Chinese Space Agency
Website of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)