We Are On the Moon Again

The Moon is in the center of attraction. Several space agencies are working to reveal known facts about the Moon to understand its evolution. As the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials say it will help them to understand Earth as well. The last expedition on the Moon was 40 years ago, this means that new expeditions can give us much more thanks to its hi-tech equipment. The updated equipment will give a great chance to stay longer in the space. It will be about 180 days.

Last week NASA talked about his plans for 2020. This is when a new arrival to the Moon is going to take place. $17 billion a year NASA is going to spend on developing a spacecraft which will take astronauts to the Moon.

But US is not the only one who's interested in the Moon. Russia and Asian countries are spending huge amount of money to explore the Moon. Talking about the money: last year, NASA said that the new expedition would cost about $104 billion, but that doesn't include the cost of multiple and continuous moon flights and the price of building and running the newly unveiled lunar outpost. So this year the Government Accountability Office evaluates NASA's lunar program at $230 billion.

Russia is interested in the NASA's moon mission and hopes to participate in it. Russia has already submitted a proposal and is waiting for a respond. "As far as the U.S. lunar exploration project is concerned, Roscosmos and NASA heads have in principle discussed Russia's possible participation in the project more than once," said Roscosmos spokesman Igor Panarin. "Roscosmos has expressed its readiness to contribute."

China's plans concerning the Moon are: a mission in April next year and a manned mission in 2024. The fist expedition's aim is to test the technical equipment for the future missions. It is planned to cost $100 million. The orbiter is based on the DFH-3 Comsat bus and will have a mass of roughly 2,000 kg, 150 kg of which will be the scientific payload (a stereo camera system to map the lunar surface, an altimeter to measure the distance between the spacecraft and the surface, a gamma/X-ray spectrometer to study the overall composition and radioactive components of the Moon, a microwave radiometer to map the thickness of the lunar regolith, and a system of space environment monitors to collect data on the solar wind and near-lunar region).

Japan is going to spend $166 million to explore the Moon. Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) is aimed to gather necessary information for a global view of the Moon lunar orbiter mission. The most important data to be gathered during the mission are: elemental abundance, mineralogical composition, topography, geology, gravity, and the lunar and solar-terrestrial plasma environments. This mission is to help improve the coming expeditions.

The next is coming India with $2.2 billion for 2014 and approximately $4.4 for 2020. These projects are not yet approved by the government, but are planned to be discussed in coming months. "There have been several studies already done internally at ISRO on the technical and financial feasibility of the project. The discussions on whether the manned mission is required will be based on these studies," says S Krishnamurthy, director for information at ISRO.

So flights to the Moon are very popular nowadays. Thousand of scientists and engineers working on these missions, billions of dollars being spent and this is all to make our living better on the Earth, and who knows.

By Ruzan Harutiunyan for HULIQ