President George W. Bush set a goal three years ago to establish a permanent base on the moon and eventually send a manned mission to Mars. Unprecedented worldwide growth has pushed formerly impoverished nations like China, Russia and India into the cosmic middle class. Russia and China have designs to mine the moon for its resources—particularly helium-3, a rare isotope that some scientists think could fuel nuclear fusion reactors and provide a source of clean energy. The United States has not officially embarked on a new moon landing mission and that has some experts worried other countries will arrive first and control the moon’s resources.

A top official in China's space program has set 2024 for the country's first moonwalk, a Hong Kong newspaper recently reported. The mission would kick off in earnest in 2008 when China launches an unmanned lunar satellite in March or April to orbit and survey the lunar surface.

"China now basically possesses the technology, materials and the economic strength" to put a man on the moon, the paper quoted Long Lehao, deputy chief architect of the lunar probing project as saying. He said China's moon probing project will move onto its second stage from 2009 to 2015, and the third stage will begin in 2017 when robots will be sent to the moon and come back with moon samples. When the fourth stage begins in 2024, he said, China will be able to send astronauts to the moon and then return to the earth. In 2003, China became only the third country -- after the United States and Soviet Union -- to launch a man into space aboard its own rocket. Last October, it sent two men into orbit.

World famous offshore sportsbook Intertops.com currently has odds posted on the “Race to the Moon”:

"Race to the Moon": Which Nation will land on the Moon next?

China: -143
United States: +100