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A Monday piece in IO9 contained some revelations about the upcoming sequel to 1996’s “Independence Day,” which is entitled “Independence Day: Resurgence.” 20 years after the great alien invasion flattened many of Earth’s largest cities and killed untold millions of people, the world is still united in building up its defenses against a return engagement. These defenses apparently include a moon base.

By 2030, Russia will send robots to the Moon to collect samples. The program will be punctuated with a manned Moon landing — 60 years after Neil Armstrong’s Apollo mission. Payback, perhaps, for losing out on the major leg of the U.S. and Soviet space race. The optimistic program also lays out plans for active exploration of other planets in the solar system, and ideas for a follow-up to the International Space Station: The ISS is only funded until 2020.

After a decade of waiting, young space enthusiasts across the country are celebrating a new plan that will take them and their colleagues to the Moon and on to Mars. "I have been waiting a long time for NASA to go beyond low Earth orbit!" said 26-year-old aerospace engineer Alicia Evans, "If they need volunteers, I am there." The new plan is set to fit within the current NASA budget, a major change from space exploration programs of the past. Loretta Hidalgo, 31-year-old president of the Space Generation Foundation, says, "What it will give us is more bang for our...

NEIL Armstrong's first footsteps on the moon in 1969 inspired universal wonder and excitement. In that moment, it seemed the unimaginable had become reality, and a course for an enterprise in space in which anything was possible was established. Today we know much more about the difficulties of space exploration by humans or machines, and our thinking about space has evolved with our growing awareness of its costs and hazards. Remarkably, those first footsteps continue to inspire. President Bush's remarks on the Columbia tragedy capture a widespread sentiment: "Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration...

Scientists are divided about the use of the Moon as a base to develop ways to travel to Mars, according to reports given to the US government. Some have said the possibility of water-ice existing at the lunar poles would allow a moonbase to use the ice as rocket fuel for a Mars mission. Others contend that it would be too difficult to extract. And there is disagreement about whether the moon is a good alternative to space as a base for advanced telescopes. In January, President Bush redirected the US space effort sending astronauts back to the Moon and...

from the January 29, 2004 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0129/p14s02-stss.html Another giant leapScientists around the world are eyeing the moon as a future research lab and a gateway to space exploration, while companies look at commercial prospects.By Peter N. Spotts | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor It's been dubbed Earth's attic, a keystone for understanding the early history of the inner planets, and even a potential safe-deposit box for evidence of life early in the solar system's history. By whatever label, the moon's star appears to be rising. Even before President Bush unveiled his space policy earlier this month,...

Building a Moon Base Out of Moon Dust From the NewsChannel 19 Newsroom 1/28/04 On January 14th President George Bush announced a new vision for America's space program. We will return to the moon and build a base, and then head to Mars. "I was very excited," says UAH Associate Professor Dr. Sam Toutanji, who is part of the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at UAH. Toutanji is particularly interested in what construction materials a moon base might be built with. He believes concrete is the material of choice. "We can. Three things we need to know, first, do we...

For some, it is the steppingstone of the Moon, not the distant goal of Mars, that is the irresistible destination in the human venture into space that President Bush will propose tomorrow. For geologists, Moon rocks could tell much about the first billion years of Earth's history. For astronomers, the Moon would be a cold, dark place ideal for a telescope staring deep into the cosmos. "There's a lot we could get out of the Moon," said Dr. Allan H. Treiman, a scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. But he added, "It's not grab-the-public-by-the-throat science." After the...