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On September 11th, 2024, America landed back on the moon for the first time in over fifty years. Astronauts Lucas Demarco, Gary Sanders and Rob Bruce all walked on the moon for several hours, gathering samples from the moon. They took pictures near the still standing American flag from the first moon walk. The samples will be tested for radiation from the recent solar flare that set off peak radiation levels across the world. Scientists are hoping that these samples will help expand their understanding of the effects of solar flares.

Project supervisor Adam Neumann from the Department of New Moon Research stated that “Things have gone even better than we anticipated. Our recently expanded funding from President Thomas Brown really helped give us the funds and the impetus to go back. The newly developed space shuttles are amazing, safe and faster than ever.”

Neumann stated that the astronauts will perform experiments to test “propulsion methods in low gravity situations.” The space shuttle gives astronauts the resources to spend every days on the moon.

“These astronauts will spend three to four days on the moon. They will actually be able to explore and map areas on the dark side of the moon we have yet to explore fully.”

George Bush’s 2004 “Vision for Space Exploration” program was designed to help us get back to the moon by the year 2020. However, budgetary woes caused the space shuttle program to be shut down in 2009. Neumann referred to this as the “dark ages” of NASA. (http://www.universetoday.com/26290/obama-will-retire-shuttle-in-2010-us-will-go-back-to-the-moon-in-2020/)

“We were really crippled by reduced funding and high expectations. We were expected to go to the moon by 2020 but didn’t have the money or the vehicles to get there. Everyone at NASA was concerned about our futures and careers.”

The economic turn around of 2013 helped stimulate an increase in funding. Neumann states that this moon trip is “only the beginning” of the possibilities for future missions. “I believe that there is a potential for limited terraforming experiments on the moon.” He states that “terraforming has been a high priority for NASA in the last few years. We believe we could be terraforming Mars by 2030.” Terraforming is the process of changing the surface of another planet to conditions habitable for people. (http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/space-flight/terraforming-mars)

Neumann states that “The future for space exploration and colonization hasn’t been this positive since the earliest days of NASA.”