Nasa is making plans to actually go back to the moon as a part of the overall

agency Exploration Campaign that is in support of the Space Policy Directive. The

return to the moon will start off with robotic missions to the lunar surface. There are

NASA robotic lunar surface missions being planned right now that will begin as early as

2020. The robotic missions will focus on understanding lunar resources, and prepare

the lunar surface for a sustained human presence, to include the use of lunar oxygen

and hydrogen for future lunar vehicles. The surface of the moon itself will serve as a

crucial training area and technology demonstration test site. That is where we will

prepare for future human missions to other destinations such as Mars. The observations

of interest are those like NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that imaged

objects that were impacting the surface of the moon. These images allow NASA to test

and constrain models that are used to understand how water and other volatiles may be

transported to the shadowed craters near the poles of the moon. A partnership with

Nasa and Israel, the first Israeli spacecraft to land on the moon THIS THURSDAY

APRIL 11TH! Nasa is currently holding discussions with the China National Space

Administration to look into the possibility of having observations of the landing plume of

their lunar lander by using LRO’s LAMP instrument. They have agreed that any new

finding will not be hidden from each other and was shared at the 56th session of the

Scientific and Technology Subcommittee meeting of the UN Committee on the Peaceful

Uses of Outer Space meeting in Vienna, Austria, on February 11-22, 2019. All of this is

what is currently and has been going on with robotics involving the moon. It would be

better to live on the moon and do all these robotic missions for a few reasons. 1- the
moon is so much closer to us, making it easier to get these things and people to the

moon. 2- it’s less harsh there than mars so the robotic rovers can probably survive

more. Lastly reason 3- we’ve already got people and crafts to the moon, and because of

that we know what innovations and different things to do to make the missions

successful. As for Mars, it’s uncertain and highly dangerous, also you can only get to

and back from Mars when the planets are lined up in a certain way meaning you can

miss it and get stuck there, with the moon that isn’t the same problem.