A scientist's inspiring vision of our return to the Moon as humanity's next thrilling step in space exploration
Just over half a century since Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the lunar surface, a new space race to the Moon is well underway and rapidly gaining momentum. Laying out a vision for the next fifty years, Back to the Moon is astrophysicist Joseph Silk's persuasive and impassioned case for putting scientific discovery at the forefront of lunar exploration.
The Moon offers opportunities beyond our wildest imaginings, and plans to return are rapidly gaining momentum around the world. NASA aims to build a habitable orbiting space station to coordinate lunar development and exploration, while European and Chinese space agencies are planning lunar villages and the mining of precious resources dwindling here on Earth. Powerful international and commercial interests are driving the race to revisit the Moon, but lunar infrastructures could also open breathtaking vistas onto the cosmos. Silk describes how the colonization of the Moon could usher in a thrilling new age of scientific exploration, and lays out what the next fifty years of lunar science might look like. With lunar telescopes of unprecedented size situated in permanently dark polar craters and on the far side of the Moon, we could finally be poised to answer some of the most profound questions confronting humankind, including whether we are alone in the Universe and what our cosmic origins are.
Addressing both the daunting challenges and the immense promise of lunar exploration and exploitation, Back to the Moon reveals how prioritizing science, and in particular lunar astronomy, will enable us to address the deepest cosmic mysteries.
"In December 2022, it will have been fifty years since humankind's last voyage to the Moon. And nations around the world have been gaining momentum, increasingly rapidly, in their planning to return. NASA proposes to land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024 (with the Artemis program) and to build a lunar orbiting space station - the Lunar Gateway - that will be capable of sustaining a permanent human presence by 2028. The Lunar Gateway is also meant to be a base for coordinating lunar development and function as a launch site for further solar system exploration (including to Mars and beyond). Meanwhile, the European Space Agency (ESA) has called for the installation of a permanent, human-inhabited village at the lunar southern pole. And, among other lunar projects, China's National Space Administration is also pursuing a human outpost on the Moon. Private entrepreneurs are enthusiastic about mining minerals on the Moon, making rocket fuel for further space exploration, and even developing luxury hotel resorts. These various lunar initiatives that characterize the new space race to the Moon are generally more commercial than scientific. Yet, geared as they are to establish habitable facilities on our nearest neighbor in space, they will also open up the Moon to science and usher in a new age of scientific exploration. While international space agencies and commercial interests jostle and race to create habitable space and profits on the Moon, this book advocates for the science that can be done there and lays out a vision for what the next fifty years of lunar science might look like. In particular, Silk advocates for the pursuit of lunar astronomy and argues that building a telescope on the lunar far side should be an integral part of plans to return to the Moon, as it would be uniquely poised to answer some of the most profound questions facing humankind: where did we come from and are we alone?"--
"The exploitation of the Moon in the next decade should be of wide general interest and this book will help inform that."
---Peredur Williams, The Observatory
