December 14, 1972; Apollo 17 leaves the lunar surface of the moon. That’s the last American to set foot there since.
Americans from Buzz Aldrin to president Barack Obama say it’s a waste of time to put men back on the moon. That raises the question as to why foreign countries, such as China, are so eager to take that ‘one small step’.
Following China’s recent manned missions and efforts to build a new space base, this past Monday, they launched a man-sized robotic scout to the moon suggesting a future manned mission, but why is the open question. Speculation runs from a desire to build a military missile base, a death star of sorts, or just for national pride. Maybe the answer is even simpler, the moon is ‘easy’ to get to.
“If you’re still trying to test out your space legs, it’s a great place to do it,” said one NASA engineer familiar with the agency’s plans. Currently, NASA’s plans are more aligned with a highly challenging project to tow an asteroid back to Earth, as well as transporting men to Mars within the next two decades, which are vastly more technically complex compared with the moon landings America ended four decades ago.
According to NASA administrator Charles Bolden, “Mars and the asteroid mission is just clearly not something most of them can even fathom taking a major role in, whereas going to the moon is something that they can do, as the Chinese have proven.” Others, including a chorus of ex-astronauts and policy experts argue that NASA is making a mistake by ignoring the moon, which still fascinates the Earthbound. Only 12 men have ever set foot on the moon of which all were Americans. Dennis Wingo, a space entrepreneur and author of the book “MoonRush” thinks the Chinese mission is more about supporting the world’s exploding population. “China is spending billions on resource acquisition in Africa, South America and other places around the world,” he said. “If you look at the design of their system for this mission, it is very much a mineral prospector as much as a science mission.”
Bolden said, “They all have dreams of putting humans on the Moon. I have told every head of agency of every partner agency that if you assume the lead in a human lunar mission, NASA will be a part of that.” NASA’s David Weaver said, “The Global Exploration Roadmap we recently released is a clear signal that the global community is committed to working together on a unified deep-space exploration strategic plan, with robotic and human missions to destinations that include near-Earth asteroids, the moon and Mars.”
Other experts call America’s agenda a profound oversight. Wingo says, “Our political system made a possible fatal mistake in 1968 (by) shifting the entire focus of the American government from one of forward-looking future-supporting projects such as the interstate highway system, advanced aerospace, and space development. We are reaping the fruits of that mistake today.”
Meanwhile, back here on Earth, Moon Express, a private company, plans the US’s first controlled moon landing in 40 years. Moon Express will unveil the MX-1 spacecraft at the Autodesk University show in Las Vegas on Thursday evening – a micro-spacecraft that will in 2015 mark the first U.S. “soft” landing since the days of the Apollo program. The craft looks like a pair of donuts wearing an ice cream cone and the tiny vehicle clearly isn’t big enough for a human being but it is big enough to scoop up some rocks and dirt, store them in an internal compartment and return it to Earth. Remembering the moondirt Gene Cernan, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin once trod holds a king’s ransom of titanium, platinum, and other rare elements.
“We call it the iPhone of space,” Bob Richards, co-founder and CEO of Moon Express says, citing the MX-1’s flexibility. The “microlander” can deliver up to 130 pounds of cargo to the surface of the moon, or act as a sample return vehicle or a “space tug,” he said.The craft uses hydrogen peroxide as rocket fuel, a high-test version of what you’d get in a drug store and it’s surprisingly small. The company has planned a survey mission in 2015 and will announce launch details next year and in 2020, it aims to return samples from the moon. The MX-1 is made possible by tremendous advances in computing power and engineering, notably 3D design and engineering.
Moon Express is only one of several private companies planning space missions. Tourism, orbiting hotels and more have exploded, but no area has more attention more than the moon. Some want to sell property there, a Japanese firm suggested a solar panel power ring, and China on Monday launched the Chang’e 3 lander which will be the first controlled landing since the Soviet Union’s Luna-24 in 1976.
Moon Express has yet to pick a spot to land in 2015. Richards said he is considering a location in the Southern Hemisphere, near Surveyor 7 which was the last robotic mission in which the U.S. soft-landed on the moon in 1968. “It’s iconic to have the first private robotic lander resting next to the last government robotic lander,” he said.
I have to wonder, will they find this?
