NASA plans new trip to the Moon

A space shuttle will be sent to collect surface dust samples

NASA plans on returning people back to the moon pretty soon. That's why they need to examine the potential threats that the astronauts may face on it's harsh surface. This is where the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer mission (codenamed LADEE) comes in. It's purpose is to gather information on Moon's surface dust and the impact Moon's environment has on it. With this information, scientists hope to discover potential threats that future lunar explorers may face and, hopefully, countermeasures to them.

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The LADEE mission will be carried out by cooperative effort of NASA's Ames Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center and Marshall Space Flight Center. The price of the space shuttle is thought to reach 80 million USD. Another project, Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) is also underway. It's goal is to measure moon's gravitational force at ultra-high precision. Since both projects are concentrated towards lunar exploration, initiators want to launch them both in one Delta II rocket. The space shuttles will separate in space: GRAIL will orbit around the moon, measuring it's gravitation, while LADEE, after a 4-month trip and a 1-month checkout phase, will perform scientific operations for 100 days.

Another project, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is also planned to launch later this year. So, NASA is again interested in sending people back to the moon, to check if aliens haven't stolen the US flag. But if they did it nearly 40 years ago, why can't they just do it now? I am aware that several Apollo projects failed miserably, so was Apollo 11 just blind luck? At any rate, reaching other planets is kind of enlightening. Even the soviet union, USA's largest nemesis congratulated them on reaching the moon back in the Cold War era. It just goes to show you, there is a higher purpose of the human race, dominating over all petty conflicts we have with each other. The only problem is that we don't quite know what it is.