Next Nation to Land Humans on the Moon

[Waspie_Dwarf]

In terms of human spaceflight NASA appears to have lost interest in the Moon, looking towards Mars instead. However NASA's goals tend to change with every new President, so can we rule them out of a return to the Moon?

Russia, on the other hand, has stated that it's next goal IS the Moon, with the eventual goal of a permanent base there. Roscosmos has the know-how but do they have the money?

China are the only other nation to have launched humans into space. At the moment their crewed programme is fixed firmly on building a space station by early next decade. What are there intentions after that? They have a very active unmanned lunar exploration programme. Will the next words from the Moon be spoken in Chinese?

Then there are the dark horses, Japan, Europe and India have all sent unmanned vehicles to the Moon, but none currently have a manned programme. Is this likely to change in the next few years? Will it be one of these space agencies that return humans to the Moon?

Will the next mission be a joint mission of two or more space agencies, international co-operation on the Moon in the same way that operates on the ISS.

And finally, because this is UM, an option for all you conspiracy theorists that don't believe we ever got there to start with.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Interesting!

So far China, a nation with no history of heavy lift launchers is in the lead.

I have to say that I will be surprised if China beats Russia to the Moon. Russia already has a large rocket in the design stage. China has yet to decide if they are even going to build such a rocket. For the next 8-10 years China's manned programme is going to be focused on building a space station, only once that has been built are they likely to focus on sending taikonauts to the Moon.

I voted for an international mission. ESA, despite the current political situation, co-operates with Russia's Roscosmos on a lot of projects, I suspect that they will co-operate with Russia on this too. Failing that Russia and China are forging ever stronger links in spaceflight co-operation. A Chinese/Russian project is not out of the question.

[Sir Smoke aLot]

It will be USA or international mission ( which would be my favorite ) of USA, Russia, China and ESA. If i remember it good there was talk among US politicians about going back to the Moon before year 2020 but i am not sure about it, that is why i think it will be USA but international mission is preferable because of many reasons.

[seeder]

I'd say Russia!

But dont forget the dreams/plans of commercial businesses like Virgin Galactic / Richard Branson!!

Tourist trips to the Moon by 2043?

http://edition.cnn.c.../space-tourism/

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Edited August 2, 2014 by seeder

[Grandpa Greenman]

The reason I am thinking China is because they got the cash . Russia, like the US, has a lot of money problems. Might end up joint China and Russia, though.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

The reason I am thinking China is because they got the cash .

China may have the cash but they aren't spending huge amounts of it on space. The Chinese National Space Agency not only has a lower budget than NASA, ESA or Roscosmos but rates behind that of even Italy.

However it's not quite as simple as that as it is difficult to separate Chinese civilian space spending from military spending. Even so their spending is not huge.

[Crabby Kitten]

Japan is full of sparkling ideas. Maybe they might go next.

[shrooma]

i'd say Asia, rather than a specific country.

they're branching out, where we're becoming insular.

they see financial constraints differently than us in the west.

they want to go for it, whereas we're jaded when it comes to expenditure.

****g good luck to 'em i reckon!

they've got the balls.

we don't.

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[skookum]

I reckon an international mission is the most likely, purely financially.

If the world wide economy recovers further hopefully countries will commit towards space exploration.