International Manned Lunar Base: Beginning the 21 st Century in Space

The next generation of space vehicles will be capable of routinely carrying humans beyond the confines of the earth's gravitational field. Ambitious undertakings such as manned bases on the moon should greatly increase the scale and importance of con-structive international interactions. At the present time the most appropriate arena for the closest cooperation in space seems to be scientific investigation. Achieving higher levels of cooperation in the grand schemes of future human exploration such as establishing human presence on Mars will require a buildup of interactions and trust through a series of programs of evolving complexity. In this paper we present a part of the case for developing lunar bases, with detailed emphasis on the astronomical opportunities which they offer. Reasons are given as to why the development should be international, along with suggestions as to steps which can be taken in the next few years to undertake this initial level of large-scale space cooperation