Country Goals for Space and the Moon We are starting to hear more about some of the newer aerospace companies and NASA is even giving them some contracts. There are three companies which I have to admit I never heard of until I read an article about NASA signing them up for different projects. One of the things I couldn’t help but notice is they all seem to want to land on the moon and are very confident they can at least put instruments there in just a couple of years. It seems the time is coming quickly where we won’t have to wait for programs that take many years before they are able to be carried out. I am glad to see this; it should have happened right after the Apollo program finished. Some say it did, but no one told us. The three companies I am talking about are: Astrobotic has said it has a goal which is to make the moon truly accessible. NASA has given them a contract for fourteen payloads to be delivered to the moon. It is working in conjunction not only with NASA but also with United Launch Alliance which will provide the rocket for its new craft called Peregrine. ISpace is a private company with a home base in Japan. It wants to use the moon’s own materials to create a city there. The city even has a name, Moon Valley and they believe there is a good chance it could be accomplished by 2040. They plan to orbit the moon next year in 2020 and land on it a year later. They also had entered the X Prize program. Intuitive Machines is the only one of the three companies which did not participate in the Lunar X Prize program. The company does have an advantage, or do they? It was founded by former NASA engineers. The reason I question the advantage is being former NASA engineers could mean some of the same old ideas. NASA has given them a contract for up to five moon payloads. The first launch to be in 2021. It looks like the moon is going to become a very busy place. So far, I have only talked about NASA and the companies it wants to use for traveling to the moon, but I don’t want anyone to think this will be a purely American enterprise. The entire world is waking up to the fact the moon is important and many other countries are making plans to go there. So far Russia, Japan, China, India and the European Space Agency have all gone to the moon and there is no reason for them to stop. One of the problems with travel to the moon is the expense. It is still very expensive to go into space. The Russians as the Soviets have been going to the moon for decades. They may not have sent humans there, but they sent robotic landers and orbiters. Russia has announced a program to land cosmonauts on the moon. Roscosmos is the equivalent of NASA and in May 2019 they gave a speech to outline their plans for space and the moon. There is a problem with Roscosmos however since it has been reported there is very low morale and low salaries. The speech was made before university students with the hope some of them would join the agency. They talked about developing a new heavy booster rocket and a new spacecraft which would fly to the International Space Station in 2023. In 2029 a crew would fly into lunar orbit and test the lander and an inflatable lunar base module. In 2030 Russia plans to put a crew on the moon. China wants to build a moon base and put it near the south pole of the moon. It’s aim is to do this in about ten years. On the base would be a research station. They have already landed a lander on the moon known as the Chang’e 4. Astronauts have been sent to two different space stations and some say this is practice for the moon shot. China also wants to launch a large space station and crew it. Another moon lander is scheduled for this year. India is also very interested in the moon and has just recently put a lander on it. The Indian government is saying it will send an Indian astronaut into space in 2022. Since India is a developing nation some are questioning whether India can afford to enter an expensive space race. India now has a space budget of almost 2 billion dollars. It is much less than China and the U.S. spend on space, but they seem to be able to do things much cheaper. India had two firsts. It became the first Asian nation to reach Mars and the first nation to do it on the first try. India spent 670 million dollars to reach Mars, America spent 2 billion dollars to get the Curiosity Rover on the Red Planet. This was of course much more complicated. Some critics are saying a country where about one third of the population do not have electricity should be taking care of that first. The European Union also has plans for space travel and the moon. It wants to land a rover on the moon and eventually send astronauts. The Europeans are working with the Canadians and Japanese space agencies. They want to carry out a mission known as the Heracles Moon mission. That mission is scheduled for the mid 2020s and its purpose is to return samples to earth from the moon. It is a robotic mission. The Europeans are planning a human driven rover project for the moon at a later date.
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