U.S. Vice President Mike Pence recently made it clear that the Trump administration will instruct NASA to send astronauts to the moon and establish a permanent lunar base. As soon as the news came out, it immediately aroused people's renewed attention to the United States' "return to the moon."

Since then-President Kennedy proposed the "Apollo Lunar Exploration Plan" in Congress 56 years ago to send humans to the moon for exploration in the late 1960s, the United States has begun to pay attention to this planet. explore.

The mission of the "Apollo Project" includes preparing for manned lunar flights and conducting manned lunar flights. On July 21, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the surface of the moon and became the first human being to leave footprints on an extraterrestrial body. It was there that he uttered the immortal famous saying: "That's one small step for a man, but a giant leap for mankind."

Until 1972, the United States successively succeeded in Six manned lunar landings were carried out, and 12 astronauts set foot on the moon to conduct various explorations and retrieved 381.7 kilograms of lunar samples. Although the "Apollo Project" was a product of the Cold War, through the space race with the Soviet Union, the United States did achieve fruitful results in manned spaceflight, landing on the moon, and deep space exploration, and obtained a large amount of precious lunar data.

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the United States lost a strong competitor and the funding for space exploration in the United States was also much lower than before. Many space projects were forced to be postponed or canceled, including the Exploration of the Moon.

The reason why the United States decided to "return to the moon" this time was due to its consideration of practical factors. First of all, as far as the moon itself is concerned, it is rich in mineral resources, and there may be hundreds of millions of tons of iron alone. By analyzing samples collected from the moon, it can be inferred that the dust on the moon's surface contains about 55 minerals, six of which have never been found on Earth.

It is inferred that there are reserves of 1 million to 5 million tons of helium-3 on the lunar surface. Helium-3 is an ideal raw material for nuclear fusion reactors. If helium-3 is used to replace deuterium in nuclear fusion, Not only can it solve the energy crisis, but it can also greatly reduce nuclear pollution.

At the same time, the gravity of the moon is very small, and the cost of building a launch site to launch payloads into space is very low; since there is no atmosphere, building an observatory there can see farther and clearer; if you build a solar power station , the efficiency will also be higher.

In addition, large-scale space activities such as exploring the moon have a huge boosting effect on the economic and technological development of the United States. Take the "Apollo Project" as an example. This plan not only enabled the United States to regain the initiative in the space competition with the Soviet Union, but also promoted technological progress in many fields, giving birth to liquid fuel rockets, microwave radars, radio guidance, synthetic materials, A large number of high-tech industrial groups such as computers and wireless communications.

At present, a considerable part of the high technologies such as information, biology, and new materials that the United States leads in the world come from the digestion of technologies related to the "Apollo Project" , optimization and secondary development. After more than 4,000 high-tech patents and technologies obtained through this program were transferred to civilian use, they drove the development of science and technology and industrial prosperity in the United States. The benefits of its secondary development and application far exceed the direct economic and social benefits brought by the "Apollo Project" itself.

Some analysts say that American commercial companies such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Qualcomm have more or less developed due to this favor; while companies such as Boeing and General Electric have directly benefited from the development of aerospace technology; Even the technologies for down jackets and travel shoes are derived from the civilianization of technologies related to this project.

First of all, from the perspective of human development, exploring and developing the moon is the only way for mankind to get out of the "cradle of the earth". As a superpower in the field of space exploration, the United States is not willing to be absent.

Secondly, the United States has successfully carried out many moon landings, has a relatively solid foundation and mature technology, and is relatively certain of landing on the moon again.

Once again, the United States has been at the forefront of the world after the war, and its investment and courage in the field of high-tech innovation cannot be underestimated. If it can get strong support from the government, this plan will "accidentally" The possibility of success cannot be ruled out.