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European Scientists Make a Case For a Return To the Moon

Posted by timothy on from the earth's-attic dept.

MarkWhittington writes "While the official target of NASA's space exploration program remains exploring Earth approaching asteroids, the case for a return to the moon has been made from a variety of quarters. The most recent attempt to make a case for the moon is in a paper, titled Back to the Moon: The Scientific Rationale for Resuming Lunar Surface Exploration, soon to be published in the journal Planetary and Space Science."

3 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. We're still /. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please link to the actual journal submission, not some article from the Yahoo! Contributor Network...

  2. If budgets matter, EU cares less than US by rgbrenner · · Score: 5, Informative

    The US is spending 25.7 billion (17.7 billion NASA, 8 billion for the military (GPS, etc)) on space in 2012

    ESA spent 4 billion Euros (about $5 billion)... a total of 413 million EU on human space flight.

    There's a lot of talk in the paper about "global" exploration of the moon. I can only assume that means they don't plan on increasing that.

  3. Re:We should follow Dave Chapelle's lead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    But it has gravity which makes it easier for humans (less bone loss).

    Underground lunar facilities would provide shielding against cosmic rays (also better for humans).

    There's *stuff* on the moon we can mine & use on site (as opposed to launching it from earth).