Video published on Sep 8, 2016. The last humans to visit the Moon left the lunar surface in Apollo 17 in 1972, since then no humans have been further than low earth orbit missions and to the variety of space stations that have existed since then.
The question is now, where shall we go next, do we make Mars the next great step forward or do we go back to the Moon to practice our new technology (both in habitation and in mining off world).
This time it is not down to the space race or national pride (but then again ...?), but it is in expanding the human horizon to living elsewhere in the solar system other than the Earth and maybe even making a profit while doing so via research and mining.
Even before the Apollo missions had finished, Werner Von Brawn, the designer of the Saturn 5 moon rocket, wanted NASA to mount manned missions to Mars and the Soviets were also drawing up their own plans to send men to Mars. But by the early 1970s, the huge cost of the space race, the warming in the relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and the change of direction by NASA from the Moon to manned space stations and the space shuttle, effectively ended manned space exploration beyond low earth orbit, and Mars, which was always a much more difficult challenge was off the agenda.
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