The most important human adventure

The arrival of humans on the moon, fifty years ago, was the most important human adventure to date. From the point of view of exploration, it is extraordinary that with the Apollo program, 12 men went from one planet to one celestial star and lived in a different gravity.

As a scientist specializing in the adaptation of humans to extreme environments, human space programs such as Mercury, Gemini and Apollo have influenced my entire professional career, devoted to space medicine.

This branch of medicine was born a few years ago, in 1961, with the flight of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to travel in space. At that time, neither the Russians nor the Americans could send a capsule, put it in orbit and bring it back. At Apollo, the main challenges, from the human point of view, were to be able to reach the moon and walk in one-sixth of the gravity that exists on our planet.

The human body is made to live on Earth and when one element of this equilibrium is removed, as the force of gravity, there is a series of reactions in the body to adapt, and this adaptation is what we study to know and have an explanation. physiological mechanisms and, from there, the opportunity to develop new therapeutic pathways.

There is a large amount of scientific data on Apollo that fifty years later we use for return to the moon. The Apollo 11 mission has set up a laser that still works, and it's the one that gives the exact second to second distance between the Earth and the Moon.

On the other hand, the economic impact that the program had at the time was so important that the United States continue to live from this success. More than 20,000 companies participated in the project, 450,000 people worked directly and more than 5 million indirectly. There was also a political continuity that few countries have, Apollo had the support of four successive presidents of different parties.

Like fifty years ago, a great technological leap and political and economic interests are taking place. Americans want to do business and the Chinese show that they exist and that they are in international competition.

There is no doubt that we will return to the Moon: in 2025, the human being will once again be on its surface and in 2030, there will be a colony.

* Researcher at the European Astronaut Center and member of the European Space Agency (ESA) directory of manned space flight and robotic exploration programs.