Professor Lewis Dartnell, Professor of Science Communication, was interviewed in an article in The Weekly News Newspaper about the possibility of colonising the moon.
Professor Dartnell gave the prediction that humans will be living in giant cities on the moon in 150 years’ time. His project, Moontopia, with home interiors specialists Hillarys, is a digital model that shows what life might be like if humans populated the moon 150 years from now.
Speaking about colonising Mars as opposed to the moon, Professor Dartnell said: “The moon certainly is much closer! It’s easier to get to, it’s easier to launch big rockets full of people and stuff to the moon. Also, the moon is much safer in the important respect that if you have an emergency or if something goes wrong and you need emergency supplies flown up to you, the moon is always about two days away. You just launch straight back down to the Earth and get recovered. But with Mars, because it’s orbiting the Sun as is the Earth, you can’t just launch any time. You have to wait for a particular launch window that comes up about once in every 18 months.”