Isn't the Moon within our reach now?

                                        Isn’t the Moon   within our  reach now ?

          Even now we have been using  idiomatic  phrases  like, “Don’t ask for the Moon,”  ‘Be over the Moon,” “Reach for the Moon”, “Promise the Moon” etc. These phrases implied that one was asking  for the impossible. Not any more. Moon is not an unreachable place any longer.  Within a few years, we can be standing right on the moon and looking around judging by the progress made by India and the USA in recent times on Space exploration.

         The  space  craft “Chandrayan – I” ,  sent by India,  made an extensive survey of the entire surface of the Moon, and  has found  proof of the presence  of water  particles. [It is to be noted that the earlier missions by the USA  had investigated less than 25% of the area.]  Not wanting to be lagging behind once again, the  USA sent two crafts to crash on the Moon  like they were dropping two live bombs to dig a well of sorts.  “Did USA find any water deep down?”  We have to await their press release in this regard

         Now you can let your imagination fly wild about the future possibilities. The United States, Russia and China  are already on the job of  building human habitations after 2020.  This is good news indeed.  Assuming that the Moon would become a habitable place in course of time, I would be the first person to take residence there provided some ‘promoters’ build a nice little house for me. And then will follow lakhs of Indians from overcrowded cities in India. Other nations whose population remains steady may not  like to migrate there but they could plan a holiday or a week end stay.

        Talking about a vacation on the Moon, I visualize  that there would be no need for tourist cars or 2 wheelers or any kind of transport to go sight seeing. You can go on foot.  Actually, you can fly. Don’t forget the Moon’s gravity is just one fifth of ours,  So, in one step you can cover as much as 10 feet.  Isn’t that a wonderful experience?  And our sprinters could cover ten kilometers in ten steps and all of it within a minute or so. 

       As regards your food items, I can’t imagine what kind of  meals you could expect.  Since water is available there, the  inhabitants could grow vegetables and some traders could despatch live stock for consumption. So, we are likely to get both vegetarian and non vegetarian eatables.

          Entertainment?  No problem whatever.  You may not find any cinema theatres but you could take your own VCD and DVD of your favourite films and watch then there on your lap top.

        Now we come to the crucial factor of cost of travelling and cost of anything on the Moon.  Please hold your breath.  The two  direction journey would cost you not more than 10 million dollars per person?  “ WH……AT? “ you shriek.   What do you think? Is  space travel as easy as a bus travel and  as cheap as a bus ticket?  No way.

       It’s a fair guess  that not more than two or three persons could afford this expensive  inter planetary luxury. Possibly, they too may think twice before working out a Moon itinerary.
      
       Even the scientists are not thinking on these lines at all.  They are planning to use the Earth’s natural satellite only as a space station to launch  space vehicles to other planets in our Universe to know more about them  The Moon’s low  gravity and hence the low escape velocity would make rocket launching  far easier and less expensive.