A SPANISH astrophysics expert says US president Donald Trump's idea of putting another man on the moon is 'very unlikely' and 'definitely impossible within the next seven years'.
“It's not viable, from many points of view, particularly economic and technological,” says Benjamín Montesinos Comino, 57.
“He would have to completely stop the space industry in the USA and all other projects in order to dedicate it solely to that, and I don't believe the circumstances are right at the moment.
“Although I wouldn't rule out that, long-term, we might be able to repeat the historic feat of 1969.”
Firstly, says Montesinos, NASA does not have its own vehicle for transporting astronauts to the moon – at present, those who travel to the International Space Station (ISS) reach it via Russian rockets.
And rockets, capsules and moon-landing vehicles would have to be developed 'from scratch', says the expert from Alcázar de San Juan (Ciudad Real province, Castilla-La Mancha).
“And that's just to get there. The second step which Trump proposes is to build a base on the moon,” Montesinos explains.
“I'm not too sure where all this is coming from – what he said about 'we're going to build a base on the moon as a platform to travel to Mars and other faraway worlds' is rather absurd, and sounds like something out of a sci-fi film.”
But Montesinos – who graduated and later researched his PhD at Madrid's Complutense University before working in the Faculty of Physics at Oxford for six years – admits that building bases on the moon is 'one of the conceptual projects' that various international space agencies have in mind, including the European one, the ESA.
“There's a division of the ESA working exclusively on research into the possibility that, in the future, in the medium or long term, we may be able to set up a permanent base on the moon – but it's something that has to be done very gradually, step by step,” the astrophysics specialist reveals.
“It is indeed possible to put a man on the moon again. The engineering is already prepared, but the entire programme has to be developed and, right now, the technology is not there because neither the plans nor the money have been put on the table.
“But obviously, a moon landing is indeed possible, as long as there's enough time and planning; although you can't just 'go and do it' on a whim.”
Many would ask why 1969 was the first and last time a man walked on the moon, but Montesinos clarifies that it happened in the first place because of a 'political bet' between the USA and the then Soviet Union.
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