Our moon is the only large moon of the terrestrial planets and the only object in the solar system besides Earth that we have visited. While no humans have landed on the moon since 1972, there are currently multiple countries and companies planning manned missions to the moon this decade. The US Artemis program is scheduled to launch the crewed Artemis II in 2024 to orbit the moon, with Artemis III scheduled to land astronauts on the moon in 2025. The goal of the Artemis program is to establish a permanent Moon base as a step towards future missions to Mars. China is also working towards a crewed landing by 2030 with plans to establish their own permanent Moon base. Meanwhile, SpaceX's DearMoon mission is aiming to take space tourists on a lunar orbit flight in the next few years, and Russia is planning for their own crewed lunar orbital mission before the end of the decade. There are also unmanned landings planned by four countries (US, China, Russia, and Japan) in the next few years. From your perspective, what do you see as the most important factors leading to this concerted effort to return to the Moon after 50