The Moon is attracting much attention these days as NASA is ready to send space rockets there and preparing for more to follow. The mission’s objectives are clear: to create a long-lasting base on its surface and prepare to go to Mars one day.

What’s the next great move in humans’ quest for the secrets of the universe? When it comes to the near future scientific research in space, there are a few areas in the solar system that will receive some special attention.

First of all, there’s Venus, a planet which was like a paradise to human with oceans and a pleasant atmosphere. However, something went terribly wrong there a few billion years ago, and NASA has scheduled a series of missions to explore what exactly is going on there.

At the other end of the solar system are the gas planets. Several of the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn are covered in thick sheets of ice, and underneath the ice are oceans of liquid water. NASA has missions planned to investigate those mysterious worlds, hunting for any sign of possible life hidden deep within.

As for us humans, Mars is certainly the grand prize in the coming decades. If we have enough money for the trips, we can perhaps keep astronauts working and studying on the surface of Mars for quite a long time. The other planets in our solar system are not so suitable for people to settle on. For example, Mercury is too close to the Sun and too far away from the Earth.

In the coming decades, humans expect to see a rise of “space hotels” set up for visiting tourists and scientific explorations. Because of our current level of technology, it is not very practical to turn the space rock into a place suitable for humans. But it may be the next easiest thing to achieve after going to the Moon and Mars.

In the universe, as we know, there is the sun, the moon, the earth and many stars. Through our geography lessons, we know the earth goes around the sun, and the moon goes around the earth. We have day and night because the earth keeps turning all the time. When our part of the earth turns to the sun, it is day. When our part of the earth turns away from the sun, it is night.

Just because the moon is closer to the earth than the sun, it looks much bigger than the sun. Big things look smaller when they are farther, and small things also look bigger when they are nearer.

The sun is bright enough to give out very strong light. The moon can’t give out any light at all, but it looks quite bright too. Why? In fact, the light from the moon comes from the sun. The moon looks much bigger and brighter than the stars. But actually the stars are much bigger and brighter than the moon. They look smaller than the moon also because they are farther away from the earth.

There are still many other planets in the solar system (太阳系). All of them move round the sun. But of all these planets, only on the earth there are living things and people can only live on the earth too. At 9:00 am on October 15th, 2003, Chinese pilot Yang Liwei was sent up to space. He stayed there for 21 hours. It was the first time for Chinese to get into space.