Who will be next to walk on the moon?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 15 February 2024
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the next two or three years America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration - NASA - plans to send a mission into space that will land people on the moon for the first time in over a half a century.
The mission has already been pushed back and is widely expected to be delayed again.
But America is not alone. Both China and India also have ambitions to land people on the lunar surface.
Who is next to walk on the moon is driven by geopolitics and a desire to harness the moon’s resources. Different countries, and even the private companies involved, all have different agendas. Who gets there first may even determine the political ideology of any future permanent human settlement.
Contributors: Oliver Morton, Senior Editor at The Economist and author of The Moon, A History for the Future Eric Berger, Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica Christopher Newman, Professor of space law and policy at Northumbria University Namrata Goswami, Professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University
Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Louise Clarke Journalism Researcher: Matt Toulson Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Production Coordinator: Liam Morrey
Image: U.S. Flag On The Moon by Encyclopaedia Britannica via Getty Images Credit: NASA Youtube Channel
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In 1969, a plan to show support for an anti-racism protest turned the lives of 14 promising |
| 0:07.0 | black student athletes upside down. |
| 0:09.8 | Amazing sports stories from the BBC World Service tells their story. |
| 0:14.0 | Search for Amazing Sports Stories, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:18.0 | Welcome to the Inquiry with me, Tanya Beckett. |
| 0:22.0 | One question, four expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:27.0 | Three, two, one. Hissen. |
| 0:31.0 | Right that way, Houston. In the next few years, America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, |
| 0:41.0 | plans to send a mission into space that will land people on the moon for the first time in |
| 0:46.4 | over half a century. |
| 0:47.6 | That's one small step for man, one giant leap for a mankind. |
| 0:55.0 | In 1969, Americans Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong |
| 1:00.0 | were the first people to walk on the moon. |
| 1:06.0 | Subsequent Apollo landings put 12 men on the lunar surface in total. |
| 1:12.0 | Since then, Russia, China, India and Japan have all successfully |
| 1:17.0 | soft-landed unmanned probes, landers, or rovers on the lunar surface, but never a human. |
| 1:25.0 | Now America's Artemis program is planning a renewed effort. |
| 1:31.0 | Its goal is to land a team which includes a person of color and a woman |
| 1:36.6 | on the lunar surface and America is not alone in its ambition. Both China and India are also planning to set foot on our |
| 1:46.7 | closest neighbor in space. This week on the inquiry we're asking who will be next to walk on the moon. |
| 1:57.0 | Part one, fly me to the Moon. |
| 2:07.0 | I have always found the idea that when you're looking up at the moon you're looking up at a |
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