• Question: Would people go to the moon again?

    Asked by Jed to Vinita, Col Op, Charlie 🚀 on 14 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by Caunor Grego.
    • Photo: Charles Laing

      Charles Laing answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      Hi Jed,

      Yes I think so!

      There have only ever been 12 people to land on the moon with the first astronaut to do so, Neil Armstrong in 1969. Perhaps surprisingly humans last walked on the moon in 1972 and since then we have never been back.

      Lots of people think the next place to go to is Mars but I think trying to travel again to the moon could be a good stepping stone to further longer missions.

      We now have the International Space Station (ISS) with people living in it and there are plans to build a Moon Village operating on the same basis with lots of countries taking part. See here: http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2016/03/Moon_Village2

      The ISS is about 250 miles away and we are pretty good at operating things there and it is not that far away for an emergency. The moon is a bit further (!) at 240,000 miles so lots of extra things need to be thought about and this makes it much more challenging. However, we have been to the moon before and it is likely we will be back soon.

      Charlie 😀🚀

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