Dr. Scott Pace testified to the U.S. Senate that while space touches every aspect of modern life, he focused on human space exploration, as that topic is the one whose future is most in doubt today. This is unfortunate, as human space activities are among the most interdisciplinary of enterprises, requiring skills from every field of geoscientific and technical endeavor. Their successful accomplishment requires a degree of systems engineering skill found only in the most complex and demanding programs. The ability and willingness of a nation to lead such endeavors conveys much about the nature and intentions of that society. Thus, human spaceflight continues to possess enormous symbolic value, leading directly to important political, economic, and scientific consequences, both domestically and internationally. Human spaceflight is therefore a matter of considerable interest to policymakers, and should be. While the United States continues to be officially uninterested in leading a human return to the Moon, the Moon is the next logical target for all of our potential international partners.
Russia has made several presentations at various international conferences endorsing human missions to the Moon. China has not made an official decision to send humans to the Moon, but is proceeding with a steadily advancing robotic program that is putting in place the technical pieces necessary to conduct more ambitious missions when they so choose. They have landed a nuclear-powered rover on the Moon, unveiled designs for a Saturn 5 class heavy-lift launch vehicle, and are building a space station that will be open to international participation. Growing space powers such as the Republic of Korea and India have their own unmanned lunar ambitions, and even the private sector is looking to the exploitation of lunar as well as asteroid resources. Europe is more cautious about human missions to deep space... but remains in the field with the ESA.
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