Re:If We Can Put a Man on the Moon, Why Can’t We Put a Man o...
by sohkamyung on Tuesday January 02, 2018 @01:49AM
(#16050354)
> We have plenty of moon rock to run experiments on.
True for one side of the moon. The Far Side of the Moon (the part that never faces the Earth) is still mostly an enigma. It looks very difference from the Near Side and while we have mapped it, we don't have samples from it.
I would say a lunar mission is still called for, but for the Far Side.
That is what China's upcoming moon mission might be aiming for [1]: Chang'E 5 will conduct a sample return mission late in 2017, and Chang'E 4 will carry a rover to the far side of the Moon, the first mission ever to do so, about a year later.
True for one side of the moon. The Far Side of the Moon (the part that never faces the Earth) is still mostly an enigma. It looks very difference from the Near Side and while we have mapped it, we don't have samples from it.
I would say a lunar mission is still called for, but for the Far Side.
That is what China's upcoming moon mission might be aiming for [1]: Chang'E 5 will conduct a sample return mission late in 2017, and Chang'E 4 will carry a rover to the far side of the Moon, the first mission ever to do so, about a year later.
[1] http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2017/20170920-cha...