Is a Lunar base a romantic vision, a scientific necessity, or perhaps just an outlandish waste of money?

For centuries man has looked up to the sky at night and wondered about the Moon. It has been a symbol of much significance - religious, superstitious and social - in societies across the world.

Exploration of the Moon began in 1959. Unmanned space craft were sent into orbit to observe the Moon and by the end of the 1960s the USA was ready to finally put the first people on the Moon.

Several manned flights followed but by the 1970s Lunar exploration by humans was considered too expensive and was abandoned - only to be taken up again by robots.

But now the discoveries of Nasa lunar probe may prompt mankind's first step towards building a Lunar base.

The discoveries raise many more questions than they answer. Should we build a base at all? What would be the purpose of such a development? Who would pay? Whose territory would it be? Should we resist the temptation to fulfil sci-fi dreams, and spend the money on more earthly problems? Or would it be a noble endeavour?

Should we build a base on the Moon?

The moon, like the oceans and, indeed the earth should be considered part of our shared humage heritage rather than as a pile of real estate, or a resource to be exploited as soon as possible...
Frank van Ruyssevelt, The Netherlands

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