Credit: NASA
Probes and landers
Now, the Russian space program, with an eye toward an outpost in the distant future, may launch its Luna-Glob project within the next several years. Plans include an orbiter that will deploy 13 probes, including penetrators and a lander, to answer questions about the Moon's origin and search for water ice.
"There is a fair bit of overlap among missions, but this is okay in science," says Cohen. "We will get more coverage and better resolution by being able to add together data from similar instruments."
This is partly by design, she says. "NASA doesn't want an over-reliance on other countries to collect the data necessary for a human return to the Moon. What if another country cancelled its commitment to fly or their spacecraft failed? We rather fly our own missions with our own instruments to make sure we get our basic data, and then we definitely collaborate with other countries and missions to share, refine and improve the data."
The future looks bright for lunar science. If all goes to plan, nine satellites could be buzzing around up there by the end of 2011.
Dauna Coulter writes for the U.S. space agency NASA.
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