Lune, le huitième continent

While since 1972 no more man has walked its surface, the Moon once again exercises its power of attraction on the great nations. After the return to the race of the United States, announced in 2017 by President Trump, Russia, China and India have recently landed rovers there, and the European, Japanese and Brazilian space agencies have flown over it. This interest has also spread among a handful of private investors. Start-ups and ambitious billionaires are determined to make the star a new economic space. Beyond the knowledge that future explorations on the Moon may provide, the ongoing, highly strategic programs aim to ensure superpower status for newcomers, such as China, which plans to send its first taikonauts there in 2036. Another major advantage of our natural satellite: with a gravity six times less than that of the Earth, requiring forty times less energy to take off, the Moon should become a preferred stopover for future manned missions to Mars.