The 21st Century Lunar Gold Rush

During the 'Apollo' program, astronauts brought back 382kg of lunar rocks. They became the official property of the U.S. government, meaning that sale of the rocks in any form is strictly forbidden. However, the U.S. gave some away as gifts to other countries and state governors. Following a series of gifts, theft and misplacements, some of these rocks found their way into the marketplace, with US$4.28 million the sale price per gram this January at world-famous auction house Sotheby's.

Second – US$250 million. This is the estimated price of a private lunar circumnavigation with SpaceX.

People may remember that in September last year, SpaceX announced Yusaku, founder of a Japanese online fashion retail website, as its first customer of private lunar circumnavigation. In an interview, Musk and Yusaku revealed that Yusaku's contribution to Musk's rockets equated to 5% of the total R&D cost. Based on this, a circumnavigation around the Moon carrying six to eight passengers has been calculated to cost about US$250 million.

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will be the first private citizen to fly on a SpaceX rocket around the Moon. (Photo by Natsuki Sakai/AFLO)

These two pieces of data prove two things. First, the Moon exerts a strong 'primal' influence on and attraction to us as human beings, thus assigning commercial value to anything connected with her. Second, space tourism is clearly on the agenda, and trips intended to either orbit or land on the Moon are highly attractive projects.

Indeed, this is the case. In an interview with CNN, SpaceIL mentioned that they plan to sell "sponsored ads" and naming rights on video and image data transmitted back to Earth. Virgin Galaxy, the space tourism enterprise derived from Virgin Airlines, recently sent a real-life employee into space. It is clear that even if lunar research incurs a loss, there are ways to quickly recover the costs.

Exploring the Moon on an equal footing: What’s possible on the Moon today?

More crucial, with developments in science and technology we are now able to accomplish far more in our exploration of the Moon compared to half a century ago.

First of all, we have a better understanding of the Moon's magnetic field.

By studying the rocks brought back by the 'Apollo' program, scientists have discovered that the magnetic field around the Moon is less than 1/1000ththe strength of that around Earth. Furthermore, after calculations, scientists believe there used to be a magnetic field around the Moon that later disappeared.

The main task of the 'Genesis' lunar landing is to measure whether the magnetic field intensity of rocks on the Moon is equal to that assumed by means of equipment used to measure the magnetic field of ancient volcanic rocks.

In the wake of more Moon landings, and as lunar exploration becomes increasingly commercialized, more scientific validation for questions such as that of the magnetic field will be conducted on the lunar surface.

There is also the ongoing exploration of water and oxygen.

Interstellar migration is the ultimate goal of all space exploration. In August last year, NASA officially announced that it had confirmed the existence of water on the lunar surface, meaning that the Moon is endowed with the very same resource we rely on as human beings for our survival!

This has prompted various research institutions to attempt further landings on the Moon to carry out research related to the survival of the human race.

More importantly, there is the precious mineral resource, Helium-3.

Helium-3 is a clean, safe and highly efficient nuclear fusion fuel for power generation that is very difficult to acquire on Earth. For this reason, scientists have dubbed it "pure energy". Some have even claimed that 100 tons of Helium-3 could provide the total amount of energy required by the Earth for a whole year.

This resource exists in the soil of the Moon. If future conditions are ripe and we fail to find a better alternative to oil, the Moon could become the "Persian Gulf" of space.

In order to conduct further investigation of the Moon's resources, clearly the best option is to actually reach its surface. One key project in China's ongoing lunar exploration plan is to measure the thickness of the soil on the Moon's surface and research further the total volume of Helium-3.

It is precisely due to these ripe conditions that there is heightened demand for lunar landings.

That the lunar landing model is now sufficiently commercial invites involvement by both state and private actors, so that nations and even companies without space engineering capabilities can now participate in lunar exploration by way alone of financial contributions to the projects. In such way, both cost recovery as well as human understanding of this mysterious satellite will be accelerated.

（编辑：核心网）

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