Space : The new race to the conquest of the moon

Twelve people have set foot on the soil of the moon, four of them are still alive. All of them are now more than 80 years old. That alone shows how far in the history of this fascinating adventure of mankind.

50 years Ago, on 21. December 1968, around launched the spacecraft Apollo 8 the first manned flight to the moon, on 21. July 1969-entered him then, the first men: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. To date, only Americans were on the moon.

According to the setting of the Apollo program in 1972, the moon disappeared – at least for the General Public – in the shadows. He comes out again. Each of the space Nations, and a few ambitious super-rich, such as SpaceX founder Elon Musk, billionaire Richard Branson declared the manned flight to Erdbegleiter back to the destination of your plans and dreams.

"always on the moon

stay" a few days Ago, Russia has given his program up to the year 2030, it is known, in which the moon plays a Central role. In previous concepts of manned space flight had not yet been to Mars as the next strategic goal.

The Change of strategy comes a little surprising, even if Dmitry Rogozin, head of the space Agency "Roscosmos" plans had already indicated a long time ago: For the next leg of the flights to the moon, there is "a beginning, but no end. We prepare to stay forever on the moon“.

Also, China is heavily involved and now wants to explore the far side of the moon.Photo by Jiang Hongjing/XinHua/Reuters

will Start soon, with a systematic unmanned exploration. But then a constantly manned Station is to be built, however, 15 or 20 years pass until then.

With a similar rate China is progressing, has just brought its Mission of Chang'e e4 on the way. The earth-controlled vehicle, a Rover, to explore the far side of the moon. Other unmanned missions will bring in the next few years, the soil samples back to earth before then in the 2030s, the first Chinese to enter the moon.

More money for Nasa

Nasa, America's space Agency, is re-awakening from their chronic lack of money caused a "phase of weakness". At the peak of the Apollo program in the 60s, Nasa had a fabulous 4.5 percent of the U.S. budget. Currently, there are still 0.5 percent.

to bring a recently commissioned Donald Trump Nasa with the "Space Policy Directive 1," in the next ten years, Americans on the moon. The Congress approved this year to 20.7 billion dollars, a billion more than the year before. Half of it is for a moon program.

The closest to a manned Mission to the illustrious billionaire Elon Musk seems to be at the moment. The epistemological value of these flights on the moon is already clear: He is close to Zero. For this, they promise to be an entertaining spectacle.

Musk wants first help people to a space launch, which are similar to rich as he himself. The first of them is the Japanese Yusaku Maezawa, who made his fortune in the music industry.

To is a race to the moon in the 60s between the United States and the Soviet Union, it will probably come. For almost two decades the Soviet Union had disputed that this competition has given.

the battle for Power and influence

That was hardly surprising. Because Moscow has lost this race. Until 1989, 20 years after Armstrong, and in a time of Glasnost, revealed the newspaper "Izvestia", the Soviet moon program. The brilliant designer and Manager, Sergei Korolev, had submitted its detailed plans for a manned flight to the moon in June 1960 and was fired.

A change of mind in Moscow, and only began when President John F. Kennedy in 1961 announced that the Americans would bring to the end of the decade, an astronaut on the moon. With the secret Resolution 655/268 the Russian leadership gave the green light for a lunar program.

But, while the Americans moved their concept with a boss, Wernher von Braun, consistently, it came out in Russia between the designers to a struggle for Power and influence. Korolev died in 1966, and his plans went in the rivalry of authorities and instances.

Also today, Russia has problems to bring his ambitious program in motion. The difficulties are initially technical in nature. "Angara", the new launcher for heavy loads, needs to be brought reliably to the fly. Also a launch site in the Russian far East is not yet available.

The "discoverer of principle,"

But that is the least of the Worries that plague Roscosmos chief Rogozin. The Russian court of auditors, raised by the end of November, serious allegations against the state's space companies and initiated an investigation.

"The procurement processes are poor, the prices too high, many projects are unfinished, or were stopped, financial resources remain for months unused, several billion are stolen, lost," summed up Alexei Kudrin, chief of the court of auditors.

In the United States is convinced Nasa chief Jim bride Stine, no country alone should shoulder the financial burden. International cooperation is more effective. In fact, the conquest of space is one of the last fields on which America works-Russian cooperation.

More about

Neil Armstrong's estate, from the first man on the moon

auctioned off to stay With scientific programs, this may well be so. But experts are convinced that in the next Phase of the conquest of the moon it will go also to the promotion of its raw materials. And there could be the old "discovery principle": Where is my flag, and my state is territory.