The Moon is an object of research but also an object of future exploitation of its resources, useful in particular for the astronauts who will stay there, or even more? This is the question at the heart of this episode with Jean-Jacques Favier, physicist engineer, former astronaut.
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“To my knowledge, there are no wonders to be expected in terms of the presence of super rare, super expensive materials or elements” on the Moon, according to Jean-Jacques Favier, former astronaut aboard the American shuttle but also physicist, engineer. “Making efforts to exploit local resources is good for life there, for astronauts and for scientific exploration.”
In partnership with the Cité de l’Espace.
What resources might there be? On the far side, at the South Pole, we know that there is water and oxygen. There is also “three fundamental resources: sun, regolith and water.” The physicist recalls that we “is no longer part of the Apollo program where the Americans stayed 48 hours to a maximum of 72 hours on site and brought everything with them: food, water, oxygen, etc. There we go back to the moon to stay there permanently. So that assumes that the astronauts there will have needs.”
With Olivier Emond, head of the science, health and environment department of franceinfo, this second season of the podcast “Mars, the new odyssey: the lunar stage” offers you a trip to the Moon, a sort of training center with the future epic martian. For this sound journey, a few teammates, engineers, geographer, astronauts, journalist… and a launch pad: the Cité de l’Espace in Toulouse. Ready for takeoff?
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