Return to the Moon

Dr Duncan L Copp

June 2008

Return to the moon | Written in the rocks | A grand observatory | Space resource | A manned return? | The driving force | Find out more

A manned return?

Since Apollo, we have been back to the moon, albeit with machines and not men. In January 2003, ESA (European Space Agency) launched their first lunar mission, SMART 1, and in 2007 the Japanese launched their satellite SELENE into lunar orbit. These unmanned craft have gathered a great deal of data on the chemical and geological composition of the moon with remote sensing equipment.

But is there a case for sending people back to the moon also? Dr Heather, who worked extensively on the development of SMART 1, thinks so: 'We can learn a great deal by sending robotic missions to the moon, but they will never achieve the same as a manned mission. Humans have the ability to use intuition that simply cannot be programmed into a robotic mission.'

It's true that machines cannot totally replace human ingenuity. Cernan and Schmitt know this only too well. The lunar rover used to transport them to field locations during their mission had a broken wheel fender. Without the fender, dust kicked up by the wheel would have sprayed the astronauts and their sensitive instruments. The problem was assessed and swiftly fixed by taping on lunar maps in place of the fender. No robot is capable of making such a quick and intuitive fix. It seems unreasonable to doubt Dr Heather's argument that, owing to intuition, human exploration of the moon would ultimately be more productive than robotic exploration. The most likely solution is they will go hand-in-hand.

The lunar environment offers something else for humans. It is a convenient springboard from which to launch more ambitious manned missions and it offers a place where we can acclimatise to living and working in space before doing so. 'We must learn to operate in non-terrestrial environments using the available resources to work and survive if we are ever to be able to make longer duration missions to Mars and beyond,' says Dr Heather. It would make sense to practice on the moon, as a round trip to Mars, including a stay of a few months, would last at least a year and a half – the moon is just three days away.

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In the Shadow of the Moon >

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