Our story for today begins more than 50 years ago. It was a pleasant night in summer in July 1969. Well past 10 pm EST, people in the US sat up wide awake in front of their TV sets to watch a grainy, black and white video of man landing on the moon for the first time in the history of mankind. Following this stellar achievement, the US sent over 10 missions with many more crew members who set foot on the moon, collected rock samples and came back to earth. This frenzy of sending manned lunar missions lost steam by 1972. The US decided to use the money for a bunch of other challenges facing the country, rather than send more and more people to the moon. The story cuts to 2021 after seeing no action since 1972. NASA recently announced that it would send a manned crew to the moon by 2024. This would include at least one woman and person of colour. In today's podcast we evaluate how valid the two most common reasons given for the renewed interest to going to the moon. First being that we can collect rare earth metals from the moon's surface (mining these on earth being polluting, and it's perhaps okay to pollute the moon). The second reason often stated is that living on the moon for a month will give us enough ideas on how to send a manned exploration to Mars next. Also, if we can find a way to harness the water on moon, we can use it as a fuel to send rockets off the moon's surface. Listen to today's podcast to understand how valid these reasons are. If you have story snippets of your own on any current event, please share your audio message on hello@wsnt.in
