Moon Base?

Celebrated Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield says building a moon base is the “natural” next step to explore the rest of space.

09:16 08 June 2016

Chris Hadfield, the astronaut who famously recorded a cover version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity on the International Space Station said that we should build a moon base as it is the “natural” step in space exploration.

 

"For me it's a natural, slow evolutionary process of exploration," he said.

 

"From the surface of the world, to a space station, to the Moon, to Mars and beyond – it's just a natural progression, like the one that took us all the way from the Rift Valley of Africa right to the tip of Tasmania and Antarctica, and now into lower orbit.

 

"It's all just part of the same continuum."

 

Commenting on companies that are looking into taking humans to Mars, he said: "You can do it as a stunt, as a one-off, just to show that we can. But that's not sustainable.”

 

"If you do it as a race, as soon as the first person crosses the finish line and the tape breaks across their chest, you're done. You've accomplished why you went. And that's OK if that's why you're going - if your intent is to plant a flag and show that you can.

 

"But that's not colonisation, that's just proof of ability. We've already proven our ability to go to the moon. Now the hard part is actually colonising it."