In 2022 a Moonrush will begin in earnest

DURING THEUAEUAEIL, cold-war space race between the Soviet Union and America, the latter’s Apollo Moon missions were mostly about making a political and technological point. Having made it, they duly ceased. Now, approaching half a century after astronauts last walked on the Moon, a new age of lunar exploration is dawning. This time the goal is not just to get people and machines on or near to Earth’s satellite, but also to sustain operations there.More people are in on the action, too. South Korea’s first lunar spacecraft, an orbiter, is to be launched this summer. The United Arab Emirates () hopes to become, in the autumn, the first Arab country to operate a craft on the Moon. Though this project involves other countries, , the rover in question, is being built by the Space Agency in Dubai. It will carry a device called a Langmuir probe to study, in another first, the plasma of charged particles caused by the arrival at the Moon’s surface of the solar wind. And Israel may also soon be represented, by Space a philanthropically sponsored organisation that intends, in a couple of years’ time, to land a probe on the far side of the Moon—a feat accomplished so far only by China.