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Welcome.

It's the show where we bring science.

What that potentially means is

discovery is the advances, research, technology,

unbelievable.

Without further ado,

this is the Naked Scientist.

Hello, welcome to the Naked Scientist.

This is the program that brings you the latest breakthroughs in science, technology and medicine with me,

Chris Smith. Coming up, we'll hear why some of the world's most powerful nations are spending a considerable amount of time and money trying

to get to the moon.

We're going to cast our eyes towards the brightest and largest object in a night sky,

and that is the moon.

It plays several crucial functions, including moderating how our planet spins on its axis.

It also gives us tides, and it even acts as a guide for wildlife at night.

So it's hardly surprising that the Moon has also fascinated us for thousands of years.

More recently though, some of the world's leading economies have been attempting to find out more about it,

with increasingly ambitious missions and plans even to build bases there. And that's what we're going to discuss in the next half hour.

...