ESA’s Moon town dream was confirmed at a two-day conference named Moon 2020-2030 — A New Era of Coordinated Human and Robotic Exploration.
Around 200 scientists from 28 countries were a part of the conference, which was held on 15- 16 December 2015 at The European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk.
The moon village will act as the stepping stone for exploring more celestial bodies. The plan will be divided into a chain of missions, which are likely to begin somewhere in the 2020s. The mission will start by sending robots to the moon, where they will prepare the moon’s surface habitable for humans and come up with concepts as to how the moon village will look.
Soon after collecting the data from these missions, humans will be able to take a trip to the moon town. This mission will help astronauts to get closer to the mission of getting humans to Mars and explore other planets in the solar system and beyond.
The ESA has been closely following NASA’s mission to Mars and is open to the involvement of the US Space Agency and other private American companies. Also, the European Space Agency welcomes help from other nations in building the moon village.
Image Credit: ESA/Foster + Partners