Return to the moon, when will it happen ?

A lot of people are speculating about returning to the moon... will the US Gov. with Nasa be the first to land on the moon again ? or will it be the Chinese Gov. ? or the private business ?

And when will it happen ? vote and reply with your opinion

Before 2010 with in the next 6 or so years!

Personally I think it's too soon, because it asks a lot of planning, testing, etc etc etc... but I can be wrong...

If we got serious about, it maybe it would happen?

It all depends on whether there is a strong competition such as the XPRIZE or new space race like US versus Russia.

I guess the problem is, there're more problems for poletics to be solved first... the moon isn't a priority for them.

So China will be 2020 on the moon (if the news was right) and the question is, will nasa try to do it again before China ? and or will the private business get on the moon before china ?

Why return to put a man or two up there. We should be returning with the modern version of the horse and wagon. A semi-self sufficient foothold. Dreaming again.

The last time man went to the moon, it was a ruski bashing exercise. There isn't the same political climate today, so the reasons today will be different.

Money, boys and girls, money. If there is money to be made from it, then someone will go. Can you think of many reasons why a goverment or corporation would expend so much money to get on the moon? Scientifically, there would be interest. Imagine an enormous array of telescopes on the moon, shielded from the garbage emmissions of Earth! Oh there are plenty reasons why it would make money in the long run, but that's not how goverments or corporations think is it? The polititians hold the purse string, but while there isn't a political reason to do it, then the moon will remain where it is. Just out of reach.

Agreed. If somebody decided today that they really wanted to go to the Moon, they could be walking around on the surface by the end of this year. NASA has always used the slowly-but-surely incremental approach to these problems; businesses tend to get things done in short order. The technology is 30 years old, and a spacecraft, once funded, could be built inside of six months.

It's not really all that hard, it's just that nobody who has the money really wants to do it, and nobody who really wants to do it has the money.