NASA has big plans for the moon - and big competition
Check back in a decade, though, and the scene may be radically different. In last week's inaugural meeting of the revived National Space Council, Vice President Mike Pence vowed that "we will return NASA astronauts to the moon," spurred by scientific, commercial, and national security interests.
Me, "A lot is planned for the moon."
From article, (U.S. Representative Jim Bridenstine, the new nominee for NASA administrator[:]
“Our very way of life now depends on space,” he declared in a manifesto published last fall. “America must forever be the preeminent spacefaring nation, and the moon is a path to being so.”
In Bridenstine’s vision, the moon will soon host a bustling development of mining operations, robot geologists, video broadcasters, and a small but growing human outpost — all supported by a mix of commercial and government interests. That’s a bold claim, considering there has been only one soft landing on the moon in the last four decades.
Bridenstine is none too pleased that the solitary lunar touchdown since the 1970s was performed not by the U.S. — but by China.
Chinese rocket scientists put the Chang’e-3 lander and Yutu rover on the moon four years ago.
Russia is in the game too, teaming up with the European Space Agency (ESA) on a set of four planned probes that would pick up where Soviet explorations left off in the 1970s. This Luna series would include landers, a lunar-satellite data link, and a surface drilling operation.
Not to be left behind, NASA has been testing the moon-mining rover Resource Prospector, which could launch around 2020. A prototype is now undergoing tests at a proving ground at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the Apollo missions were directed.)
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