The New Space Race Is On - And Everyone Is Headed To The Moon
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 August 2023
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
And nearly every country with a space program is vying for a spot there - for a chance to explore the shadowy, polar craters in hopes of finding usable quantities of water ice.
On Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organisation successfully landed its Chandrayaan-3 probe near the moon's south pole. It was the first time India had landed a spacecraft on the moon, and the first time any country had successfully landed at the coveted moon's south pole.
Many have tried including, Japan, Israel, and most recently Russia, whose Luna-25 spacecraft crashed onto the surface just days before India's successful landing.
NASA is preparing its ARTEMIS mission to return to the moon. Luxembourg and Saudi Arabia have also set their sites on moon missions.
A new space race is underway. But why exactly are we racing to the moon again?
NPR's Scott Detrow speaks to space lawyer Michelle Hanlon to find out.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's successfully landed a spacecraft near the Moon's South Pole, a largely uncharted region. |
| 0:20.9 | The South Pole is the coolest place to be on the Moon right now. |
| 0:24.8 | Russia's near the South Pole are in a permanent shadow. |
| 0:27.7 | In fact, it is so cool that experts think there could be frozen water there. |
| 0:32.7 | And so for the past few years, it's been where many countries have been trying to go. |
| 0:42.4 | Russia launched a probe, Luna 25, earlier this month, but it crashed into the Moon. |
| 0:47.4 | Other countries have also been trying for years to land unmanned probes on the Moon, sometimes |
| 0:51.3 | successfully, like China in 2019. |
| 0:53.9 | But we got word overnight that a Chinese spacecraft has landed on the far side of the Moon, |
| 0:59.0 | and this is the first image. |
| 1:00.2 | Other times, not so successfully. |
| 1:02.3 | We seem to have a problem with our main engine. |
| 1:04.6 | Like in Israel's case? |
| 1:05.6 | We had a failure in the spacecraft. |
| 1:08.3 | We unfortunately have not managed to land successfully. |
| 1:10.9 | And Japan, we lost the communication. |
| 1:15.1 | So we have to assume that we could not complete the landing on the Luna surface. |
| 1:23.1 | As for NASA? |
| 1:24.1 | So there's a renewed interest in the Moon. |
| 1:27.5 | It helps its mission Artemis II will put humans back on the Moon by 2024. |
| 1:32.6 | And of course, it's there because the potential of water. |
| 1:38.0 | And if there is water in enough abundance, then you have the potential for hydrogen and oxygen. |
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