Big Picture Science for Monday August 15, 2016 - Are We Over the Moon?

Big Picture Science - Are We Over the Moon?

When astronaut Gene Cernan stepped off the moon in 1972, he didn’t think he’d be the last human ever to touch its surface.  But no one’s been back.  Hear astronaut Cernan’s reaction to being the last man on the moon, the reasons why President Kennedy launched the Apollo program, and why Americans haven’t returned.

Now other countries – and companies – are vying for a bigger piece of the space pie. Find out who – or what – will be visiting and even profiting.  Will the moon become an important place to make money?

Plus, the moon landing was a great step for “a man,” and “men not machines” make space history.  But what about women?  More than a dozen were qualified for space flight in the early 1960s.  Hear from one of these original “Mercury 13,” and find out why NASA grounded them.

Guests:

• Gene Cernan – Retired American naval officer, former NASA Astronaut.
• John Logsdon – Professor emeritus, Space Policy Institute, George Washington University
• Al Hallonquist – Aerospace historian
• Robert Richards – Founder and CEO of Moon Express
• Sarah Ratley – Former pilot, member of the "Mercury 13"
• Dan Durda – Planetary scientist, Southwest Research Institute.

This postcast downloaded at: http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/are-we-over-moon

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.