“Canada is going to the moon.”
- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
I confess that I'm a bit conflicted regarding the Gateway Station*. On one hand, I'd prefer to see more of a focus on Mars, in spite of the recent resurgence of interest in lunar exploration, as demonstrated by the Chinese Chang'e 4 lunar probe landing on the dark side at the start of this year, and a planned return to the Moon by NASA. However, the name "Gateway" is well chosen - a station in lunar orbit would also be a useful stepping stone for Martian exploration while providing the perfect overwatch for lunar missions, and also allow for the development of dedicated vacuum shuttles for ISS-Gateway travel, which would be far more efficient than the hybrid craft that have made the Earth-Moon circuit in the past.
Ultimately, it's important to be sensible about things like this. To paraphrase Bachman-Turner Overdrive**, any space exploration is good space exploration. Everything we do moves us forward on the path of exploration, and, like the song says, we should take what we can get.
- Sid
* All other issues aside, I do think it's a cool name for a space station, no offense to the ISS.
** 70s band from Winnipeg, for the younger members of our audience. The song being misquoted here is You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.
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