Britain could become involved in NASA plans to send astronauts back to the Moon by 2020, science minister Malcolm Wicks has said. Not only this, British also see an opportunity to build a partnership with the US in the Mars mission too.

He met NASA chief Dr. Michael Griffin at the Cabinet War Rooms to discuss the plans for future Moon landings.

The financial case for human exploration of the solar system is a bit complicated, and the prohibitive costs of putting people in space have seen NASA increasingly keen to collaborate with international agencies. With the British industry of micro-satellites, instrumentation and robotics it will definitely provide the encouragement that could stimulate the lunar missions.

The scientific reasons for returning people to the moon after so many years are now getting extremely strong. It would lead us to learn a huge amount about the moon also what the moon tells us about the early history of the solar system. UK’s involvement will surely bring back some of the intellectual benefits into academia which otherwise would be frozen.

Via: BBC