In this webinar, we will explore some of the scientific themes to have emerged from the beginnings of a new era of exploration, look forward to what may be coming and discuss the opportunities and approaches that Europe is taking to be a part of what’s coming next. Join on 5 March 2018, 14:00 GMT / 15:00 CET: “Back to the Moon” with James Carpenter, European Space Agency (ESA). Register and send your questions https://goo.gl/forms/zcE7muAVoxEHk4Vo1
As Apollo and Luna programmes in the USA and the Soviet Union drew to a close an era in Solar System exploration came to an end. The Moon remained unvisited for decades and a pervasive idea took hold; that we’d “been there, done that”; that we’d learned that there was to learn, the Moon had given us what it had to offer and the tit was time to focus on other things and other destinations. In recent years, however, there has been a renaissance in lunar exploration as new missions from orbit and a fresh look at lunar samples has shown us that we have barely scratched the surface and that the scientific riches of the Moon are yet to be discovered or understood.
It has also become evident that if humans are ever to become a space-faring species, able to live and work in space and harness the full opportunities that it offers then the Moon is the only place we can begin to learn how to do it. With this in mind, the agencies of the world and the private sector are collectively recognising that returning to the Moon is essential.