Europe's Space Agency Wants To Do What NASA Can't

coondoggie writes "The European Space Agency is moving forward with a plan to land an autonomous spacecraft on the moon by 2017, with the idea a manned vehicle could land there sometime in the future. It's a mission NASA had on its roadmap before the current budget debate, but such plans seem doomed now. The ESA is now seeking proposals for a lunar lander that would land on the south polar region of the Moon, which possible deposits of water ice, heavily cratered terrain, and long periods of sunlight make promising for explorers and scientists, the agency stated."

Comments

Why even go?

[quantumpineal]

We went there once and there was nothing there. Now we find here water there, so what I have loads of that in my back garden too. Why not spend money and time going somewhere worthwhile like Mars, or other bodies that we might actually mine or get some kind of significance out of?

Animation of Proposal

[Penguinshit]

Animation released by ESA. Very impressive!