The Return to the Moon

It has been described as one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century. Thanks to a combination of masterful engineering, the enduring human spirit and a dash of political rivalry, man travelled and walked on the moon.

Amid war in the Far East and racial tension on the home front, President John F. Kennedy announced an ambitious plan to send a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. It was a challenge to Nasa—a gauntlet thrown by Kennedy—to take a man to the moon and to return him safely back to Earth.

President Barack Obama is in a similar situation—two wars abroad, a growing economic crisis at home—and yet he has thrown no gauntlet. Obama's cancellation of President George W. Bush's return-to-the-moon mission has caused considerable ire amongst the scientific community and the men who have walked on the surface of the moon.

The Constellation programme has been cancelled and the Space Shuttle is about to be scrubbed. In its place, the Obama administration has decided on a long-term strategy for man’s return to interstellar space travel. In this strategy, there will be more dependency on private companies and other nations to shoulder American presence in space. At the same time there are plans to adapt lighter versions of the scrubbed launch vehicles.

However, these plans are not concrete. Nothing has been drafted, or papers been passed or signed. The proposal to return to manned spaceflight would start around 2025 and an eventual flight around 2030. The plan also adds six billion dollars for Nasa to invest in younger and eager companies that will assist them into space.

Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk is offering to fly Nasa astronauts into space within three years from now. His price tag of 20 million dollars is a bargain for Nasa which already has to pay 56 million dollars to Russia and almost 300 million dollars if it sends astronauts on its own. Musk’s company represents the generational shift in space flight exploration. People like Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bozos (founder of Amazon.com) are the new generation of space travel, far from the zenith of Nasa’s days of glory.

The response from Nasa’s experts has not been warming. ''It is the demise of American people in space except in someone else's vehicle. This is a catastrophe,'' says Apollo 17 Commander, and last man on the moon, Eugene Cernan. Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell added that, “The whole thing is flawed.'' And Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, responded to the plan in an email to the press that he had ''substantial reservations'' about the Obama plan.

With a volatile economic environment, combined with the American military budget on the rise, space travel and exploration have taken a back seat. The majority of the public are interested in jobs and a safe future for their children, rather than taking more steps on the moon.

Hence, it would make sense for President Obama to take such measures against space travel. At the same time, however, once the Space Shuttle retires and most of the Constellation programme is cancelled, there will also be job cuts at Nasa. In that instance, President Obama told Nasa workers, "The bottom line is, nobody is more committed to manned space flight, to human exploration of space, than I am. But we've got to do it in a smart way."

Man will return to moon and eventually take another giant leap towards Mars. Though Nasa and the astronauts of yesteryear have often romanticised reasons for returning, it is perhaps the sentiments of astronaut William Anders, who on Apollo 8 (man’s first mission to orbit the moon) took the memorable ‘Earthrise’ picture, that convey the need to return the best: "We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth."

Aqua Luna

It's official: Nasa has declared our moon ‘alive’. Thanks to the Lcross impact satellite last month, results now pouring in have detected ‘significant’ amounts of water in a crater at the moon's South Pole. This is a major discovery that will dramatically alter how we view the moon as a barren world. In turn, it makes it a more viable option as an off world outpost for interplanetary travel.

“Indeed yes, we found water. And we didn’t find just a little bit. We found a significant amount,” said Anthony Colaprete, the principal investigator for Nasa’s Lcross, in a news conference.

On October 9 this year, the Lcross disengaged from a large bus-sized section which eventually crashed in Cabeus, a crater 60 miles wide and two miles deep, located near the South Pole of the moon. At that exact moment of impact, Lcross was tuned to the location. Not only was it looking, it was also sensing and it picked up a plume—elements of the surface expunged upwards from the impact.

However, the satellite was not tuned properly to pick up the photograph. But what Lcross did do was sense water. An analysis of slight shifts in colour after the impact illuminated water molecules emerging from the impact crater. These water molecules, hydroxyls, absorbed specific colours of light which emerged as specific wavelengths.

Scientists also saw colours of ultraviolet light associated with molecules of hydroxyl, consisting of one hydrogen and one oxygen molecule, presumably water molecules that had broken apart by the impact and then glowed like neon signs.

This becomes an exciting discovery for the scientists who have always theorised that water would be present below the moon’s surface, in craters located in the South Pole which is not exposed to a lot of sun rays or any sun rays at all. In addition to the water molecules, there were spikes in the data indicating the possibility of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, methane or more complex carbon-based molecules. But these readings take a backseat compared to the discovery of water.

The possibilities by which the water can be harnessed are actually plentiful, and the news of such information gives hope to some of us, while it makes for an interesting business opportunity for others.

Ever since man first landed on the moon, mankind has envisioned a home for itself there. Moreover, some have even ventured to turn that vision into a business proposition. Lunar real estate has slowly seen an increase in popularity. Thanks to the worldwide web, thousands of websites have cropped up, apparently selling land on the moon, Mars and even Venus. These are all, of course, bogus sites. Nevertheless, people have shown great interest, some so far as purchasing land on the moon and obtaining a certificate from these bogus sites.

However, the only authority on the moon, which is recognised officially by all states around the world, is the United Nation. In the "1979 United Nations moon treaty" which was discussed during the 89th plenary meeting, on December 5, 1979, the treaty states, "... to promote on the basis of equality the further development of co-operation among states in the exploration and use of the moon and other celestial bodies,". It further states under Article 3 that, "The moon shall be used by all States Parties exclusively for peaceful purposes."

The treary continues in Article 4 that, “the exploration and use of the moon shall be the province of all mankind and shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development. Due regard shall be paid to the interests of present and future generations as well as to the need to promote higher standards of living and conditions of economic and social progress and development in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations."

All these points and more, make it absolutely clear that the moon does indeed belong to the humans, but they should learn to use it wisely and within cooperation.

When Eugene Cernan, the last man on the moon was about to leave, his last words foretold of this time when man's destiny to return to the moon is about to be realised: "As we leave the moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind."

Originally published here.

A bigger leap for Mankind...

It was part of a challenge and the culmination of a space race. Man’s journey and landing on the moon marked a colossal achievement in the history of mankind — unmatched to this date

On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on another world. His small step became mankind’s giant leap and for that one moment while man was on the moon, the entire world — which was locked in many bitter self-conflicts — looked up towards the heavens as one in complete awe.

It seemed like a simple thing to do for Armstrong to step off the ledge of the lunar module called Eagle. On the contrary, that step was the result of a decade-long effort put in by Nasa and even cost the lives of potential astronauts. It started with a simple speech and a challenge put forth by President John F Kennedy in 1961, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

Although the Apollo missions had already begun, it took 30 missions and five human spaceflights and three lunar space flights, to get man on the moon. From rocket tests, to aborted mission tests, to preparing the astronauts themselves, the effort put in by Nasa and the American government has yet to be matched in recent years of space travel.

Almost 35 years have passed since the last mission to moon, Apollo 17. It was the December 14, 1972, when the last man on the moon, Eugene Cernan last set foot on the lunar surface and no one has ever graced the surface of our only satellite since then. Budget reductions, faltering economies and mishaps brushed Nasa aside from being the once favorite of American governments, as the nation stopped looking to the heavens for bold adventures and looked around for materialistic opportunities, such as wars and other conflicts. But man’s return to the moon has always been inevitable.

Foundations for man’s return to the moon have been laid since 2004, when President George W Bush called for a plan to return manned missions to the Moon by 2020. Mimicking the space race of the 50s and 60s, the US once again faces competition, and this time not just from one nation.

China has developed ambitious plans for exploring the moon and has started the Chang'e programme for lunar exploration. The first successful launch of the Chang'e-1 took place on October 24, 2007. India too has joined the leagues of the lunar challenge, and several unmanned missions begin with Chandrayaan I originally scheduled to launch in February 2008, but now delayed to September 2008. India hopes to expand from robots to humans and have the first Indian on the moon by 2030. Nasa is taking steps further from just manned missions and is already working on deploying a permanent settlement on the moon in the form of an outpost around the lunar poles.

We all know the first words ever spoken when man landed on the moon, but very few of us remember the last words, as spoken by Cernan on that fateful day in December, "As we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. As I take these last steps from the surface for some time to come, I'd just like to record that America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. Godspeed the crew of Apollo Seventeen."

Indeed, the challenge of yesterday, that of the first step that made man leap a giant leap for mankind, has poised man once again towards an even bigger leap — to the future and beyond.