Apollo 17 launched from the moon to return to earth 51 years, 7 months and 6 days ago, and no one's been back since. I'm 50, and no one's been to the moon — or even outside low earth orbit — in my lifetime. The (manned) space age finished before I was born!
The idea that we should now attempt to colonise a planet or moon within the time it takes us to trash the earth into unlivability is fanciful, to say the least.
55 years ago today, Apollo 11 touched down on the lunar surface, cementing U.S. victory in the Space Race.
The crew named their landing site "Tranquillity Base".
Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin were on the surface for just over 21 hours before returning to Michael Collins in a rendezvous with the Command Module, Columbia, in lunar orbit.
21.5 kg of lunar material was collected and returned to Earth for study.
