The European Space Agency, in a space mission led by Russia's Roscosmos, plans to launch a series of lunar explorations in five years, which will become the cosmonauts' preparation and investigation for possible human settlement on the surface of the moon.
As a first step, the ESA proposed to send a pathfinding robot probe to land on an unexplored region of the moon. The proposal will most likely be approved in 2016.
The ESA will send a robot probe called Luna 27 in 2020 to assess the moon's South Pole-Aitken Basin for materials that can lead to signs of water, oxygen and fuel for future cosmonauts. The ESA will also provide an onboard laboratory called ProSPA.
"We have to go to the moon. The 21st century will be the century when it will be the permanent outpost of human civilization, and our country has to participate," said Professor Igor Mitrofanov , lead scientist from Moscow's Space Research Institute.
Mitrofanov explained that the future lunar missions would be a continuation of the Soviet Union's explorations in the 1970s, but this time, instead of a competition to whoever first gets to the moon, Mitrofanov said that they have to work together with their international colleagues.
The South Pole Aitken Basin is an extremely cold, dark region of the moon where scientists believe they could find water that is retained in ice form. This could possibly provide resources for the future colonization, scientists say.
"The south pole of the Moon is unlike anywhere we have been before," said Dr. James Carpenter, lead scientist from the ESA.
Carpenter described that on the moon's South Pole Aitken Basin, the environment is completely different, and due to the extreme cold, large amounts of water-ice and other possible chemistry will be present on the surface. He said that they could access those areas and use those for rocket fuel or in future life-support systems.
Mitrofanov said that a permanent lunar base (see the image below) will be beneficial for astronomical observation, for the utilization of minerals and other lunar resources and to perhaps create an outpost that can be visited by cosmonauts working together as a test bed for future Mars missions.
Meanwhile, Russian scientists are hopeful that the lunar missions will be the start of something new regarding the overall exploration of the Solar System.
