European Space Agency video - Destination: Moon

This 8-minute film gives an overview of the past, present, and future of Moon exploration, from the Lunar cataclysm to ESA’s vision of what Lunar exploration could be.

Why is the Moon important for science? What resources does the Moon have? Is there water? Why should we go back and how will we do it?

www.youtube.com...

I'm glad to see that at least ESA is not giving up on manned Moon missions, unlike NASA. Going there and setting up first manned outposts should be the first step into manned space exploration.

a reply to: wildespace

Thanks, good vid. A few random thoughts on watching it: I need to study the Surveyor missions, am not conversant on those and didn't realize there were so many of them....Hopefully the South Pole landings can occur sooner, or later.....At some point in human history there will be skateboard competitions, as well as rides, down the slopes of moon craters (or as the QVC hostess would call them, "sunspots").

Edit: Here is the Wikipedia page on the seven Surveyor missions, and I'll be spending some time with it:
en.wikipedia.org...

Surprised no other posts, so I'll bump it and continue/add to my last post.

I read the Surveyor page on Wikipedia, and for some reason I never knew, or don't consciously remember, that the crew of Apollo 12 landed close enough to Surveyor 3 to wander over, take pictures of it, grab its television camera for exhibition in the Air and Space Museum, and, as one page on Wikipedia says in a photo caption, "jiggle it".

Here is a link to the Surveyor 3 page. Please don't jiggle it:
en.wikipedia.org...

Although space probes have returned to Earth in the decades since Apollo 12, this remains the only occasion on which humans have visited a probe that had been sent to another world.

a reply to: wildespace

Why should we go back?

Lunar swimming. No other reason is necessary.

Well, that and you can strap on wings and fly like a bird.

originally posted by: Saint Exupery
a reply to: wildespace

Why should we go back?

Lunar swimming. No other reason is necessary.

Well, that and you can strap on wings and fly like a bird.

The moon doesn't really have an atmosphere to support winged flight.

a reply to: JadeStar

If you read the link, or better yet, the story that the link describes, you'll find the flying is done in large, pressurized underground caverns (specifically, the central air reservoir for Luna City).

a reply to: Saint Exupery
Alternatively, and in the actual near-vacuum environment on the Moon, adventurous people could be launched into a very low orbit (just enough to clear the highest lunar mountains). I remember seeing pictures and/or video depicting this, but can't find them now.

For Aleister: there are some great high-rez version of the Apollo 12 photos when they visited the Surveyor 3 at the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. Look for the magazine AS12-48-, images from -7099 and onwards. Shame that they are in b&w, though.

interesting video OP, Getting to the Moon and studying it will be a major interest for a long time, we have been there "already" but have other problems here in the 'States mostly financial that we're focusing on now ..