American scientists, engineers and architects are working on plans for man’s first city on the moon.

Last week America’s Nasa space agency revealed that it is close to choosing a massive crater near the lunar south pole as the site of the first permanent settlement beyond Earth.

Moon Town will start small, with a handful of scientists living in a base similar to the modules which house scientists in Antarctica. Within two generations Nasa hopes there will be tourist facilities, churches and enclosed streets - probably named after astronauts such as Neil Armstrong and thinkers such as Professor Stephen Hawking.

After Armstrong became the first human to step on the Moon in July 1969, man all but abandoned its closest celestial neighbour.

A handful of unmanned missions have failed to rekindle the excitement of the glorious day the Eagle module landed on the Sea of Tranquility.

Now the space agency is preparing to return to the craters where it won the 1960s space race against the Russians: just in time, say critics.

Yet it faces stiff competition not only from a generation of space tycoons, such as the American billionaire Paul Allen, who funded the first private space flight SpaceShipOne four years ago, and newcomers such as China and Japan. India hopes to land an unmanned rocket on the Moon this September.

“We’re going back, and this time we are going to stay,” declared Dr Peter Worden, director of the Nasa Ames Research Centre in California’s Silicon valley last week.

He told a space engineers’ conference: “This is the first step in mankind settling the solar system.”

It remains unclear who ”owns” the Moon. The traditional explorer’s gesture of claiming ownership by planting a flag is no longer the final word.

If that were so, the moon would already belong to Russia, which sent unmanned craft to scatter pennants on the surface as early as 1959.

Some critics oppose the lunar missions, saying there must be agreement not to exploit its resources.

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