My name is Jack and I am launching "my lunar lander" blog in an attempt to share all the latest news and interesting bits I come across regarding Man's return to the moon. The 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11th landing is July 20th, 2009 - less than 2 weeks away! While humans have not set foot on the moon since December 1972, many countries have recently begun planning to return humans to the moon. The Google Lunar X Prize is encouraging non-governmental organizations to attempt a moonshot by offering a $20M dollar reward for the first team to land a robotic probe on the surface of the moon. The Google sponsored competition is similar to the Ansari X Prize (goal: first privately funded human spaceflight); the X-PRIZE foundation awarded $10M dollars after Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne successful 21 June 2004 mission.
Here is a list of countries who have announced lunar ambitions, the name of their respective space agency and the estimated date of a landing:
- United States (NASA): 2020, unmanned lunar missions June 18th, 2009
- Russia (RSA): 2025, International Space Station.
- European Union (ESA): 2024, unmanned martian missions
- China (CNSA): 2030???, 2nd unmanned lunar mission, Chang'e 2, 2009-2010
- Japan (JAXA): 2025, 2nd unmanned lunar mission (SELENE) on 10 June 2009
- India (ISRO): 2030???, 2nd unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, 2011
This week I will begin a series "International Space Ambitions", going over the histories and futures of government space agencies ranging from North Korea to the EU.
Check ignition and may God's love be with you - Jack
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