![]() I’m in favor of also thinking about Mars, but I believe the moon is the right way to go forward. Why are you targeting the moon and not, say, new destinations, such as Mars? I would never have thought at that time that I would be part of space activities. I was breathing deeply and thinking, “We are doing the future.” It was really a big day for me. The transmission ended, and I went out of my home, into the fresh air. I remember very well: I was looking at the TV I saw the first steps of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin. In Germany, it was during the night, and I did not sleep at all. Carril European Space Agencyĭid you watch the Apollo 11 landing? How did it affect you? Long-term moon colonies would likely require habitats shielded from radiation as well as domes for growing crops and rovers for transport. But of course, without Apollo, we would maybe not think about it. Now I believe cooperation is the enabler. It is totally open for different purposes.ĭo you see the Moon Village as part of the legacy of Apollo or a deliberate departure?Īpollo was done in a totally different environment. Different partners should put in what they would like to deliver, whether it’s transportation, whether it’s mining, whether it’s tourism, whether it’s science, whether it’s technology development for in situ resource utilization-for instance, using the water on the moon for production of fuel. And it is a “concept”: it is not one project. “Open” means there is no special formality to be a partner of it. “Multipartner” means not only one-it can be as many as possible. Each and every word in this phrase is important. The Moon Village is a multipartner open concept. And we have projects where the agency is the broker, the enabler, the facilitator. We have similar projects right now at ESA. In the past, space activities were realized by direct procurement of the agencies, as in the Apollo moon missions. The moon is the perfect place to really collaborate on a global scale. We do not want a space race, with the question of prestige. ![]() Tell me about your plan for going back to the moon. Credit: Matthew Staver Getty ImagesĪn edited transcript of the conversation follows. Scientific American spoke to Wörner about the Moon Village’s goals, the debate over the moon versus Mars, and why now is the right time to go. And to back up the Moon Village’s international and collaborative bona fides, the project is officially being organized not by ESA but by a Vienna-based nongovernmental organization called the Moon Village Association, which is open for groups and individuals to join. ![]() Countries, private companies, universities, nonprofits and individuals are welcome to send people, robots, and all manner of scientific, exploratory and commercial ventures to take part. In 2015 Wörner introduced his vision for the “Moon Village,” a cooperative campsite of sorts on the lunar surface. This idea has perhaps been expressed most vociferously by Johann-Dietrich (“Jan”) Wörner, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA). If we are to travel again to another planetary body, it will have to be together. These days national prestige is not enough of an incentive for most countries to go it alone in space. Yet after the first moon landing three years later, the agency never again received more than 2 percent of the budget, and it has gotten around half a percent every year since 2010. national budget to NASA at the peak of the space race in 1966. ![]() technological superiority motivated Congress to devote almost 4.5 percent of the U.S. The urge to beat the Soviets to the moon and prove U.S. Without the cold war, Apollo 11 never would have happened.
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