World Shooting for the Moon

The United States announcement in 2004 over its new vision for space exploration has inspired several other countries to take action. The US intends to first send a manned mission to the moon and then to Mars. This ambitious plan has caused other countries to turn their attention to moon exploration. 

In September Japan launched a lunar orbit explorer named Kaguya. This action was quickly followed by China launching its own lunar orbiter in October. Russia has plans to build a base on the moon and Europe announced plans to investigate exploration of the moon. 

With all this activity one needs to wonder if we are heading towards another race to the moon. Keiko Chino has written an interesting article on this issue.