When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their first careful steps on the moon’s surface 50 years ago this weekend, they transformed humanity’s place in the cosmos. We stopped being distant bystanders who were contemplating the glories of the universe from afar and became participants in its exploitation. The fact that this goal was achieved using equipment that now looks breathtakingly primitive merely makes America’s lunar landings look all the more impressive. Apollo 11’s guidance computer had considerably less power than a smartphone has today, while the Eagle lunar module’s ascent engine, which would blast the astronauts back off the surface at 17.54 GMT on 21 July, 1969, remained a worry because it had never been tested on the moon. Armstrong rated the chances that he and Aldrin would make a successful landing at no more than 50-50. Their triumph was certainly not preordained.
The decision, made in the early 1970s, to end the programme that took Armstrong, Aldrin and 10 other US astronauts to the lunar surface disappointed many at the time. However, the Apollo flights were motivated, not by a spirit of scientific inquiry but by the United States’ desire to beat the Russians and win “the Space Race”. Once America had demonstrated its technological superiority, the Apollo programme – which at one time consumed 4% of the US federal budget – had little purpose.
However, it would be wrong to write off the moon as a destination for human activity in future years. Indeed, many space engineers now believe the time is ripe for a return. They point to the close parallels between lunar exploration and the conquest, and later exploitation, of many regions of the Earth. In particular, the timetables involved in the opening up of Antarctica now look uncannily close to those of forthcoming moon missions being planned by space agencies.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a race to reach the South Pole. After that no one returned there for 50 years. Then, in the 1950s, technological advances – motorised vehicles, air transport and radio – made it possible to explore and build bases in the Antarctic. Those centres have paid rich dividends. The hole in the Earth’s ozone layer was discovered by polar scientists while others are now doing crucial work on the impact of the climate crisis.
Now a similar reawakening awaits the moon. Armed with a new generation of advanced technologies – machine learning, sophisticated sensors and robotics – men and women are ready to start the colonisation of the lunar surface.
India, China and Israel have already sent unmanned lunar probes in recent years while the US is vigorously promoting its Lunar Gateway project. This will involve building a manned space station that will orbit the moon within the next few years. From there, astronauts will direct robots and automated craft that will set up radio telescopes, harvest minerals, search for ice and water and study lunar rocks that might be used as building materials for a lunar colony.
Ultimately, a craft would one day carry humans down to work on the lunar surface and live in these robot-assembled bases. Activities would focus on studying the solar system’s origins and using radio telescopes to probe deep space without suffering interference from devices that now bedevil astronomers working on Earth. Future manned missions to Mars could also be planned here.
Crucially, Nasa has made it clear that it is keen to involve Europe, Japan, Canada and others in this undertaking, collaboration that could begin early next decade. It is an encouraging prospect for it will mean men and women will be able to restart the proper exploitation of space that was begun half a century ago by Armstrong and Aldrin and followed up by subsequent Apollo astronauts. They have left us with a wonderful legacy and it is one that deserves to be pursued with quiet urgency and real commitment.
