Why the next decade’s hot space race revolves around the moon

If China’s just-launched Chang’e 3 lunar probe (quaintly known as the Jade Rabbit) drops its robotic rover down on the Moon’s surface in mid-December as scheduled, it will be the first soft landing on our nearest celestial neighbor in 37 years. It also kicks off a resurgence of interest in putting people and hardware d

Space spending across the continent is approaching $1 billion a year. Whoever supplies the hardware now may be setting the terms for the next twenty years.