Visiting the Neighbor

Japan launched its first probe to the Moon, Kaguya (or "Selene"), since its successful Hiten-Hagomoro probe in 1993. Relatively quiet since the 1960's, except for the occasional visitor such as a flyby of the Jupiter-bound Galileo, the orbital invasion began again in earnest in the 1990's with Hiten-Hagomoro, as well as Clementine, Lunar Prospector and the ESA's SMART-1.

And this return by Japan is only the beginning. Later this year should see China's Chang'e 1 (which may or may not be the start of human exploration by China, it depends on which set of tea leaves you read). Next year should see India's first attempt to achieve lunar orbit with Chandrayaan-1. The United States plans to support the Vision for Space Exploration with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter next year, to be followed (possibly) by a mission to return samples from the Aiken Basin at the Moon's south pole.

(Russia? Good question. The folks that make the rockets also make big promises. The folks that have the money are sounding quite a bit more restrained and conservative in their plans. The fact that sometimes these are the same folks makes you confused!)

Been there! Done that! Why are we going back?

There are many reasons. For some countries, it is as much for the science as for the prestige. Only a handful has reached the Moon, only one has landed humans there. As with climbing Mount Everest, racing to reach the Poles, or flying the first airplane showing that you have the technological knowledge and the national will to get to the Moon will still send a powerful message to other nations.

And, a bare handful of men walked on the Moon (only one a geologist), exploring (briefly) a handful of areas. Can we really say that we "know" all there is to know about the Moon? Lunar scientists have designated many areas of interest on the Moon, places we've never explored before as well as places we touched in the past. Is there ice at the poles? Evidence of past (or even "recent") volcanic action? Do the so-called transient lunar phenomena exist? Many questions abound!

The Moon could be useful as a place for other science. The bulk of the Moon could act as a shield against our ever increasingly "noisy" (in a electromagnetic sense) planet, with craters providing a natural shape for radio telescopes (much in the same way that the Arecibo Observatory took advantage of a natural formation in its telescope dish.

Just as the International Space Station could be seen as an engineering project to teach us how to build large structures in space and a place to learn how to manage long-term missions, the moon could be seen as a school for exploration. It can be a place to hone our skills, see how far people can work in harsh conditions but still offer a relatively short ride home in case something happens.

In the meantime...if you think you have what it takes, NASA is looking for candidates to fly their planned Orion vehicle to the Moon. NASA is running a contest to help design habitats for the surface of the Moon. You can see what the original astronauts felt in a new movie.

And then there's Google. From the folks that brought us Google Earth, have extended their reach out to the Moon. Google Moon allows one to explore the Moon...in a virtual sense.

Google isn't stopping there. They are helping to fund the Ansari Lunar X-Prize. Google is offering $20 million to the first private company that can land a robotic rover onto the lunar surface where it will move about and beam back information.

Maybe private industry will beat all the governments back to the Moon!