The European and Russian space agencies are to send a lander to an unexplored area at the Moon's south pole.
It will be one of a series of missions that prepares for the return of humans to the surface and a possible permanent settlement.
The spacecraft will assess whether there is water and raw materials to make fuel and oxygen.
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One of the first acts of the new head of the European Space Agency, Johann-Dietrich Wörner, was to state that he wants international partners to build a base on the Moon's far side.
The initial missions will be robotic. Luna 27 will land on the edge of the South Pole Aitken (SPA) basin. The south polar region has areas which are always dark. These are some of the coldest places in the Solar System. As such, they are icy prisons for water and other chemicals that have been shielded from heating by the Sun.
According to Dr James Carpenter, Esa's lead scientist on the project, one of the main aims is to investigate the potential use of this water as a resource for the future, and to find out what it can tell us about the origins of life in the inner Solar System.
"The south pole of the Moon is unlike anywhere we have been before," he said.
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In all probability, the next boots on the Moon will be Chinese. One of China's leading space scientists told me how he even envisages opening lunar mines to extract valuable resources such as Helium-3.
