UK to revive interest in the Moon while others focus on Mars

After the landing of US astronauts on the Moon, the interest in this heavenly body has apparently been replaced with shift of focus to the Red Planet Mars. However, UK plans to renew interest in the Moon and give it a new lease of life through its Lunar Mission One.
Scientists have set out their goals of a proposed UK-led mission to the Moon and its main objective appears to be to survey the Lunar South pole in order to learn more about the geology of the Moon and see if a human base can be set up in the future.
Among its others tasks would be to drill 100 meters below the surface apart from assessing the feasibility of setting up observatories on the far side of the Moon. Till now, samples of lunar rocks have been taken from three meters below the surface of the Moon by Apollo 17 Astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in 1972. In contrast, Lunar mission One aims to drill up to 100 meters below the surface of a site which is already thought to have material thrown up by a giant impact billions of years ago from several kilometers below the surface.
Backers of this ambitious project expect to raise the bulk of the £500m needed for the project from public donations and, in return, the donors will be able to send messages, pictures and even hair samples to the Moon where it would be buried under the lunar surface.
In the opinion of Prof Ian Crawford, who is one of Lunar Mission One's principle scientific advisers, the mission has a serious scientific purpose to complete. In spite of having over 50 expeditions to the Moon including six landings by Apollo astronauts there is still much to learn.
The European Space Agency ESA had plans for a lunar lander but it has subsequently been scrapped and the objectives of Lunar Mission One are quite similar.