NASA Plans to Return to the Moon

On Sunday night, April 6, 2008, “60 Minutes” TV show ran a story claiming NASA plans on returning to the Moon with astronauts in about 2020. Japan and China may beat us there and possibly even Russia and India may get there first. All are interested in possible energy resources on the moon and use it as a way station for a trip to Mars.

Gene Cernan, who wrote “The Last Man to Walk on the Moon,” said that, NASA is returning to the “romance of space.” The new Ares rocket won’t be ready till 2015. Without both the Ares I (for crew) and the larger Ares V (for cargo),

America does not have the rocket power to go back to the moon. Why? Because the mighty Saturn V mothballed.

While on the moon during Apollo 17, he and his crewmate Harrison Schmitt performed three EVAs for a total of about 22 hours of exploration. Their first EVA alone was over three times the length Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent outside the LM on Apollo 11. During this time they covered over 35 kilometers using the Lunar Rover and spent a great deal of time collecting geologic samples that would shed light on the moon’s early history.

As Cernan got ready to climb the ladder he spoke these words, the last currently spoken by a human standing on the moon’s surface: “As we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. As I take these last steps from the surface for some time to come, I’d just like to record that America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow. Godspeed the crew of Apollo Seventeen.” Thanks to NASA

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