The European Space Agency (Esa) was already one step ahead.Įsa announced plans for a permanent lunar base in 2016. Nasa’s primary focus until then had been Mars. It didn’t unveil plans for a permanent moonbase until August 2018. The irony is that, while only the United States of America has left footprints on the Moon, the Americans are now having to play catch up.
Across the globe, 50 years after the Moon landings, the practicalities of a moonbase are taking shape. “We hope that Chang'e 8 will help test some technologies and do some exploring,” deputy head of the CNSA Wu Yanhua said in January, “for the building of a joint lunar base shared by multiple countries.”Ĭhina is not alone in this ambition. The Chinese space agency CNSA (China National Space Administration) has announced the next stages of its successful Chang’e lunar exploration missions - shortly after Chang’e 4 became the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the far side of the Moon.Ĭhang’e 5 and 6 will be sample return missions while Chang’e 7 will survey the South Pole, a region of specific interest for human habitation because it contains water ice. SpaceX is not alone is wanting to get humans back on the Moon. “Cheesy show,” Musk tweeted, “but I loved it.” The TV series obviously made an impression on a young Elon Musk because, when the SpaceX founder revealed their plans for a lunar colony in August 2017, he called it Moonbase Alpha after the lunar base in Space: 1999. It began with a nuclear explosion wrenching the Moon, and an international lunar colony of over 300 people, out of its orbit and into an unknown journey into space. In 1975, three years after the final Apollo Moon landing, Space: 1999 first aired on British television.
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