The European Space Agency's new boss elaborated Friday on his vision for a multinational research village on the Moon -- a leading contender for a project to succeed the International Space Station. For now, it is just an idea -- called "crazy" by some -- but one that Jan Woerner said was being widely discussed as the end of the ISS looms large. The broad concept is a base for lunar exploration by humans and robots, potentially a stopover for spacecraft and possibly even a mining site. http://www.france24.com/en/20160115-european-space-boss-has-crazy-moon-village-plan
Yes, just the planets nearby are so hostile to humans ... I still like the idea to have a small but long term settlement to find out how to survive there. We should have done this long ago already. It's been like 50 years now that a man set foot on the moon.
Not so crazy as the article may want us to believe: 2030? When Kennedy decided to go to the Moon, we did it in less than a decade. Yes I know we needed to beat the bloody Ruskies, irrespective the point is that all we needed to do, was put our minds to it. 15 years?, Sure why not! at least an outpost anyway!. And I'm also of the belief that a manned landing on an asteroid and a return to the Moon, with permanent/semi permanent habitation being available, is a necessary pre-runner to a manned Mars mission. I see this, and would certainly like this to be an International effort.
