India, with lunar odyssey planned this year, is among many looking moonward

The Chinese already have robotic probes on the moon, including a lander-rover set on the dark side

The moon will be the focus of multiple missions through 2022 and the following decade. Luna is not only important real estate in itself, it will also be the test-bed for technologies that enable exploration of Mars and the establishment of space colonies. It could also be a source of many different minerals.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a sequence of missions, codenamed Artemis, scheduled for the next few years. The first would test a new unmanned rocket and associated systems. The second would put a team of astronauts into orbit around the moon. The third would land