Lunar Development
The spectacular advances of science and engineering in the twentieth century established the basis for creating permanent human settlements in space in the twenty-first century. Since the Moon is our closest celestial neighbor and is in orbit around Earth, it will logically be the next principal focus of human exploration and settlement. The Moon is an excellent platform for astronomical and other scientific investigations, for technological development, and for human habitation. It also has access to the virtually unlimited energy and material resources of space, which can be applied to the development needs of both the Moon and Earth. These opportunities, combined with the universal desire of humankind to explore and settle new lands, assure that the global transformation of the Moon into an inhabited sister planet of Earth will become a reality in this century.
A major impediment to the exploration of space is the high cost of delivering cargoes from the surface of Earth into space. For example, the cost of launching a payload into low Earth orbit by the space shuttle is approximately $22,000 per kilogram ($10,000 per pound), and that figure will be higher for missions to the Moon. Thus, it appears that lunar projects will be prohibitively expensive, even if launch costs to low Earth orbit are reduced to less than $2,200 per kilogram ($1,000 per pound).
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