Podcast: Why go to the moon?

In my last post (8 February: SpaceX vs Nasa to the moon), I wrote about an article comparing which rocket is most likely to get humans to the moon again. This post considers why humans want to go to the moon at all.

There is a podcast series of 5 episodes on the conversation website, called To the Moon and Beyond. Episode 4 is "What's the point of going back to the moon?" The podcast series was made in 2019, but the issues raised are still relevant.

Link to podcast 4: https://theconversation.com/to-the-moon-and-beyond-4-whats-the-point-of-going-back-to-the-moon-120791

The short article accompanying the podcast gives an overview of the topics discussed and describes the episode:

• "In the fourth episode of The Conversation's To the moon and beyond podcast, we delve into why there's a renewed drive to put humans back on the surface of the moon. What's there to go back for? And what are the practical, legal and ethical questions facing those who want to set up a base there -- and potentially start mining the moon?"

The two hosts are Miriam Frankel (Science Editor at The Conversation) and Martin Archer (Space Plasma Physicist, Queen Mary University of London). The 5 scientists they interview are:

• Frans von der Dunk, Professor of Space Law, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Fréderic Marin, Chargé de recherche (CNRS) à l'Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg, Université de Strasbourg
• Katherine Joy, Royal Society University Research Fellow/Reader, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester
• Rowena Christiansen, Medical Education Tutor, Doctor and Researcher, University of Melbourne
• Tanja Masson-Zwaan, Assistant Professor of Space Law at Leiden University in The Netherlands

The podcast lasts 35:58 minues, so it might be rather long for some students. All interviewees speak clearly, but there are a variety of accents (both English and non-native speaker) and various speaking tempos. However, students could listen to the podcast at home, so they can repeat as necessary or listen in shorter time sections.

The topics discussed include:

• Which resources could potentially be found on the moon and which problems would there be with extraction;
• Which laws exist, and which should be made, that govern who can mine lunar resources and how ownership would be determined;
• The ethics involved in the abilities of different countries to travel to the moon;
• The physical and psychological effects of being in low gravity, with extremely long days and nights;
• Ways in which people could survive sustainably on the moon.

Unfortunately, there is no transcript available. If listening to the entire podcast for an assignment or task is too difficult for some groups, then the teacher could "divide" the podcast into separate sections, each one covering a different topic area. Then each student, or small groups, could be assigned a specific section to listen to and write a summary of the information, which could be made available to their colleagues. This way, each student would have an overview of the entire podcast.

If the topic of "to the moon and beyond" is interesting for the group, then students might want to choose another podcast in the series (each one is 30 to 34 minutes):

• 1: What we learned from landing on the moon and why we stopped going
• 2: How humanity reacted to the moon landing and why it led to conspiracy theories
• 3: The new space race and what winning it looks like
• 5: What space exploration will look like in 2069

Link to the series overview: https://theconversation.com/uk/podcasts/moon-and-beyond