The end of the 1960s was marked by the space race between the United States and the then Soviet Union, which fought over who would reach the Moon first. More than 54 years after the United States triumphed with its Apollo 11 mission, the Earth's natural satellite is once again the subject of a new space race. This time between four countries.
The United States, Russia, India and China are working on space missions with the same goal: to reach the south pole of the Moon. But why is the Earth's satellite once again of interest to space researchers? What are they looking for in this region of the Moon?
The Moon's South Pole may harbor important resources
So far an unexplored region, the Moon's south pole is marked by a dark landscape with large shadows and a terrain with depressions and craters. But the expectation is that this part of Earth's satellite harbors important resources. And this has motivated the economic and scientific interest of the world's major powers.
Researchers believe that the Moon still harbors untapped minerals and, even more valuable, frozen water. In a statement released on the 20th, NASA said that the darkest and coldest parts of the Moon's poles harbor ice deposits.
In the darkest and coldest parts of the Moon's poles, ice deposits have been found. At the southern pole, most of the ice is concentrated at lunar craters, while the northern pole’s ice is more widely, but sparsely spread. More on this @NASAMoon discovery: https://t.co/kvjPbMrEWK pic.twitter.com/ZkVFyKrOB6
— NASA (@NASA) August 20, 2018
The publication reads: At the South Pole, most of the ice is concentrated in lunar craters, while North Pole ice is more widespread, but sparsely dispersed.
But why is the presence of large amounts of water so valuable? Because the existence of a supply of H2O could make human presence off planet Earth possible.
With water, scientists can produce rocket fuels, oxygen for human respiration, etc. In other words, if the Moon mission of any of these countries is successful and finds the expected resources, the Moon will be the first step for mankind to go further and explore other places in the Solar System, including other planets.
What we already know about new missions to the Moon
We already know that Japan and Israel have recently failed in their attempts. Last Saturday (19), the Russian Luna-25 mission also unfortunately came to an end. The unmanned spacecraft suffered a catastrophic failure and ended up crashing into the satellite.
Next to try is India. On July 14, India launched Chandrayaan-3, which is scheduled to land on Wednesday (23). Supported by the European space agency ESA and NASA, the mission will carry a lander and rover to explore the Moon's surface.
The United States is preparing to return to the lunar surface. So far, Artemis 1 succeeded in circling the satellite last year. The country wants to repeat the feat with an Artemis 2 crew next year. But the Artemis 3 mission, which should attempt to land on the moon, should not take place until 2025 or 2026.
The U.S. mission should include the first black man and the first woman to set foot on the Moon, if successful. Artemis 3 will use Elon Musk's X spacecraft.
China also plans to return to the Moon, but not until the 2030s. However, the country has had success in its robotic missions to the satellite. The Chang'e 4 mission even reached the far side of the Moon, and Chang'e 5 managed to bring rocks back to Earth.
But hasn't China already "won" the new space race? No. More is needed.
The goal of the new missions is to establish a human presence.
The new lunar exploration missions don't just want to set foot on the Moon again or bring back samples for research. The goal now is to build a space station in orbit around the satellite within the next few decades and establish a human presence.
To date, the countries that have successfully carried out missions to the Moon are the United States, China and Russia.
You may be interested:
Leave a Reply
You can also Read: