The last time human were on the moon is close to a half a century (44 years) ago. It is the desire of any astronaut to visit the moon and be judged by history to be among the few who have been there. Presently, there are concerted efforts to have a team of astronauts to visit the moon. Those of the contrary opinion believe a visit to Mars would be more gratifying instead. This discussion is coming up because it seems stakeholders are shifting their focus to Mars and possibly abandoning the trip to the Moon.
Scientific pundits, however, rule out a possibility of NASA’s involvement in plans to go back to the moon. In the year 2013, Charles Bolden, a NASA administrator said that there is no chance that NASA would be going to the moon any time soon. According to him, this is informed by the United States’ decision to pull out of the mission. The situation degenerated when President Obama’s regime cancelled the Constellation Program which was anticipated that would return astronauts to the moon before the year 2020.
This decision by NASA has thrown the spanner in the works and seems to leave every country to work on its own. NASA has been vocal and always fronted plans to revisit the moon and using it as an opportunity to test technologies to be deployed in Mars. In fact, it is believed that the moon could be used to refuel and possibly replenish food supplies for astronauts on their way to Mars.
It is possible that NASA is not bothered because some of its international partners and financiers are contemplating possibilities of going to the moon on their own. It seems their major priority is going to Mars and not the moon anymore. NASA wants to concentrate on making new exploits which add value to scientific exploits (including going to Mars). As things are, funds are available to the “Mars mission” rather than “Moon mission”.
As things are currently, each of the countries has been left to explore their own destinies. They have to develop in-house strategies and come up with modalities to make their plans a reality. With the US already out of contention, there are only a few other countries and national agencies with the will or the means to successfully accomplish a luinar mission. Russia has announced that they plan to send astronauts to the moon by the year 2029 and such is the case also with both China and Japan. The European Space Agency (ESA) has also planned a future lunar mission with a realistic deadline of gwtting astronauts there by 2040. It is even possible that they could land on the moon between the year 2025 and 2035.
With that in mind, it becomes glaringly clear that there are many uncertainties surrounding any planned or proposed mission back to the moon. One of the challenges being anticipated is whether the any of the above countries will stick to their timelines and proposed mission designs. China specifically has yet to prove that they even have the appropriate space technology to even accomplish such a mission, although some recent strides have been made within their rocket program.
Russia's space program is currently on the ropes with their government showing little enthusiasm on reviving and jump-starting it. This now makes things worse regarding the ever elusive dream of going back to the moon. With the U.S. taking a lead in declaring that they are not sending astronauts to the moon, possibilities are high that countries like Japan, China and Russia may also scrub their programs or delay their missions for several decades.
However, all is not lost even with the cancellation of the Constellation Program. Sources intimate that lobbying is ongoing for the U.S. government to approve a moon mission by commercial moon venture Moon Express. In the past, it is only governments that dared dream of going to the moon. It is encouraging that private entities are coming out and joining the quest. Its approval is expected any time in the near future and would be the turning point of private space exploration. That decision could provide the biggest U.S. government boost yet for commercial space exploration and, possibly, the first in many for-profit space missions throughout our solar system.
