Returning to the Moon

More than fifty years after Apollo 17's Gene Cernan became the last human to walk on the Moon, a new era of lunar exploration has begun - and this time, the stakes are higher, the participants are more numerous, and the destination is more scientifically understood than ever before. Returning to the Moon traces the full story of humanity's second journey to the lunar surface: the discovery of water ice at the south pole that transformed the Moon from a barren wasteland into a strategic resource frontier, the Artemis program's rockets and spacecraft and the fierce political economy behind them, the commercial landers rewriting what robotic missions can accomplish, and the geopolitical contest between the United States and China that is shaping where we go and how fast we get there. Drawing on the latest science from missions including LCROSS, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Chandrayaan-3, and China's Chang'e 6 - which returned the first samples ever collected from the lunar far side - this book explains what we now know about the Moon that Apollo never revealed, what a permanent human presence at the south pole would actually require, and why the decisions made in the next decade will determine who controls the most valuable real estate beyond Earth. Clear, current, and written for readers with no prior background in space science or policy, Returning to the Moon is the essential guide to understanding the most consequential space program of our era.