US Vice President Mike Pence said 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, people immediately paid attention to the "return to the moon" in the United States.

The moon is the only natural satellite of the earth. A large number of studies believe that exploring the moon is of great significance to the development of human society. As a leader in the global space field and the only country that has successfully landed a man on the moon, it is reasonable for the United States to restart its trip to the moon.

America's "Return to the Moon" plan has been repeatedly banned.

Since 56 years ago, the then US President Kennedy put forward the Apollo lunar exploration plan in Congress, and sent humans to the moon in the late 1960s, the United States began to explore this planet.

The tasks of the Apollo program include preparing for manned missions to the moon and conducting manned missions to the moon. 1969 On July 265438, astronaut neil armstrong on Apollo 1 1 landed on the surface of the moon, becoming the first human member to leave footprints on an alien planet. It was there that he uttered the immortal famous saying: "This is one small step for man, but one giant step for mankind."

Until 1972, the United States successfully carried out six manned landings on the moon. A total of 12 astronauts set foot on the moon, conducted various explorations, and retrieved 38 1.7 kilograms of moon samples. Although the "Apollo Program" was a product of the Cold War, through the space race with the Soviet Union, the United States has indeed achieved fruitful results in manned space flight, moon landing and deep space exploration, and obtained a lot of precious moon data.

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, there is no strong competitor, and the funds used by the United States to explore space have also been greatly reduced. Many space projects have been postponed or cancelled, including the exploration of the moon.

Considering the huge value of the moon, the United States had a plan to "return to the moon" during the Bush administration. On September 14, 2005, NASA submitted the Constellation Plan to the White House. However, after Obama took office, he gave up the project and replaced it with an asteroid redirection plan, trying to land on Mars through asteroids and bypass the moon.

But now it seems that this step is undoubtedly a bit reluctant. The Trump administration's "return to the moon" is obviously more reliable to use the moon as a springboard for further manned deep space exploration.

"Return to the Moon" coveting the resources of the Moon?

The reason why the United States decided to "return to the moon" this time has its practical factors. First of all, as far as the moon itself is concerned, its mineral resources are rich, and there may be hundreds of millions of tons of iron alone. By analyzing the samples collected from the moon, it can be inferred that there are about 55 minerals in the dust on the surface of the moon, 6 of which have never been found on earth.

It is inferred that there is still helium -3 on the surface of the moon, with a reserve of 6,543.8+0,000 to 5,000,000 tons. Helium -3 is an ideal raw material for nuclear fusion reactors. If deuterium is replaced by helium -3 in nuclear fusion, it can not only solve the energy crisis, but 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 on it to launch loads into space is very low; Because there is no atmosphere, building an observatory there can see farther and clearer; If a solar power station is built, it will be more efficient.

In addition, large-scale space activities such as lunar exploration have greatly promoted the development of American economy and science and technology. Take the Apollo program as an example. This plan not only enabled the United States to regain the initiative in its space hegemony with the Soviet Union, but also promoted technological progress in many fields, and gave birth to a large number of high-tech industrial groups such as liquid fuel rockets, microwave radars, radio guidance, synthetic materials, computers, and wireless communications. At present, the United States leads the world in information, biology, new materials and other high-tech, a considerable part of which comes from the digestion, optimization and secondary development of Apollo program-related technologies.

More than 4,000 high-tech patents and technologies obtained through this program have been turned into civilian use, which has promoted the scientific and technological development and industrial prosperity of the United States. The benefits of its secondary development and application far exceed the direct economic and social benefits brought by the Apollo program itself. Some analysts say that American commercial companies such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Qualcomm have developed more or less by this favor; Boeing, General Electric and other companies directly benefit from the development of space science and technology; Even the technology of down jackets and sneakers comes from the popularization of related technologies in this project.

The possibility of "accidental" success is not ruled out.

Some analysts believe that the Trump administration's lunar exploration plan will generally refer to the previous "constellation plan" and make some improvements on this basis. According to the previous Constellation Plan, it is planned to build new manned spacecraft and launch vehicles in the short term. First, four astronauts will be sent to the moon and stay there for seven days. The long-term plan is to build a manned base on the moon. After the completion of the lunar base, there will be a probe car and a living area, which can realize power supply and ensure the astronauts to stay on the moon for 180 days. After carrying out manned missions twice a year, a fully functional astronaut residence will be built by 2030.

According to the information released at present, the first launch mission of the new American lunar exploration program will be carried out in the second half of 20 18, but it is more inclined to use the unmanned Orion spacecraft. The spacecraft will orbit 40,000 miles (about 64,000 kilometers) from the surface of the moon, and the whole mission will take about three weeks. As for the long-term arrangement, it should be similar to the "constellation plan", that is, seeking to establish a long-term manned base on the moon.

However, public opinion is not very optimistic about the smooth implementation of the US lunar exploration program because of doubts about where the huge budget of such a major project as "returning to the moon" in the United States comes from. However, in my opinion, this plan is not completely impossible.

First of all, from the perspective of human development, exploring and developing the moon is the only way for human beings to get out of the "cradle of the earth". As a superpower in space exploration, the United States is unwilling to be absent. Secondly, the United States has successfully landed on the moon for many times, with a deep foundation and mature technology, and it is more certain to land on the moon again. Thirdly, the United States has been at the forefront of the world since the war, and its investment and courage in the field of high-tech innovation should not be underestimated. If the government can really get strong support, the possibility of "unexpected" success of the plan cannot be ruled out.