After many years of focusing space travel on Mars and farther away from Earth, Nasa is changing its focus back to the Moon. Nasa is starting the search to find a private contractor in the United States to develop a moon landing program like the Apollo missions. The first stage of these missions is to just get a contractor to develop rockets to get to the moon and to land scientific equipment an labs on the moon in preparation for future manned lunar landings. Nasa has chosen 9 US based companies to vie for the funding and have them developing designs for the labs and landers. The US government is recreating the lunar program now because it believes that the moon has a scientific as well as economic potential.
As we discussed while reading Apollo, developing better infrastructure and a larger presence on the moon could open the door to a greater future for space travel. Already, launching rockets from space has been an idea tried for the original moon landing and has the potential to make travel farther from Earth a possibility. More lunar travel could also result in bases on the moon similar to the ISS. While these are real possibilities with a revitalized lunar program, these are just ideas that will take lots of work and time to accomplish.
There are problems that develop through an increased human presence on the moon. Using private contractors to land scientific equipment on the moon is not the problem that may arise from this new approach at space travel. The issue is what will happen when private companies have developed systems and infrastructure to travel to and from the moon and have the ability to utilize the moon for commercial purposes. Currently, the moon is owned by no country and cannot be claimed by a country which makes the logistics of regulation of individual companies working on the moon a problem. If left unchecked, the private companies could become fully in control of the moon because the government is funding private lunar programs without having one of their own. If this was handled the wrong way, it sets a precedent for all future space travel and exploration to happen the same way, with private companies doing whatever they want in space. Overall, I think that a new lunar program is a good idea, but I think Nasa needs to work closely with the contracted companies to make sure it is done right.
Article: Nasa Chooses Private Companies for Future Moon Landings