It's been 40 years since man first landed on the Moon and almost 37 since Apollo 17, when people last stood on its dusty plains. Over the course of six landings from 1969 to 1972, twelve men explored, dune-buggy'ed, dug and hiked across the surface of Luna. Accounced by president George Bush a few years ago, NASA has plans for a seventh landing on the Moon, albeit taking a lot longer to get there the seventh time than it took the first.
But this time, they intend to stay.
NASA's plans, called the Constellation architecture, involve the largest launch vehicle ever built, new types of propulsion, and a six-person vehicle to ferry crews from Earth to the Moon. Hopefully, NASA's plans go far beyond Luna and perhaps to the red planet.
The lessons learned on the Moon's outpost at Shackleton Crater could teach us how to live, permanently, on the most Earthlike world in our solar system, Mars. NASA will have company: Plans for future lunar exploration are being made by Europe, Japan, China and India.
It's like Risk, except in space.
While specific hardware and mission details will be in flux for some time, the overarching goals, strategies and inspiration for the seventh landing will not change.
In a new book "The Seventh Landing", longtime science journalist Michael Carroll maps out a typical scenario for getting to the Moon that embraces the spirit of exploration embodied by NASA's Constellation architecture. Each chapter moves from a general description to the specific nuts-and-bolts engineering and the science behind it. It details the very latest strategies for how we'll get back to the Moon, what we know today, what we want to find out, and what life will be like at the first true outposts on the Moon and Mars.
Carroll has written articles and books on topics ranging from space to archaeology and was the 2006 recipient of the Lucien Rudaux Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Astronomical Arts. He is also a Fellow of the International Association for the Astronomical Arts.