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Forty-seven years have passed since man last landed on the Moon; in the 80s and 90s, interest in visiting it waned. Now the prospect of mining for resources that are scarce on Earth but plentiful on the Moon is drawing visitors back. If the missions to revisit it go ahead, 2017 will be the busiest year ever for lunar landings.

Four of 2017's planned missions are by teams competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE – unclaimed since its launch in 2007. The first team to land a rover on the Moon, have it travel 500 metres and transmit HD video back to Earth will win $20 million (£15m) in prize money.


One competitor, US-based Moon Express, is planning on sending a mining rover to extract helium-3 from the lunar surface. The non-radioactive isotope could be used to provide safer nuclear energy on Earth.

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Space agencies are also looking at lunar landings with renewed interest - not to send astronauts there, but because the Moon can be a base from which to explore the rest of the Universe.

"The far side of Moon is one of the quietest places in the Solar System," says Bernard Foing, executive director of the International Lunar Exploration Working Group. "It's shielded from the Earth's radio signals and this makes it easier for us to image other stars, observe Jupiter, or search for signals from intelligent life.

"We could even launch spacecraft from the Moon in a relatively short time period if we can extract hydrogen from soil and use that for fuel," he says. "It takes 50 to 60 times less energy to launch a rocket from the Moon than it does from the Earth."