Why NASA is going back to the moon.... if it can get there
The US space agency has ambitious moon plans and, after a short delay, they kick off on Saturday. But it will have to compete with the likes of Elon Musk for its lunar future.
The south pole of the moon is a stunning place. Towering mountains are bathed in perpetual sunshine, and the lunar dust, fine as powder, gleams in unfiltered light. Plunging craters exist in permanent shadow and hide pockets of ice in their grey rock, the water frozen and undisturbed for as long as three billion years.
It is here, somewhere along this silent terrain, that NASA wants to land a new crew of astronauts. Like those who came before, these visitors will suit up and go for a walk, their bodies bouncing in the low gravity.
