The youngest man to walk on the Moon said that the lunar surface is ideal to build a science station.
Charles Duke, 86, who walked on the Moon at age 36 during the Apollo 16 mission in 1972, was speaking at the Dubai Airshow on Monday, alongside UAE astronauts Hazza Al Mansouri and Sultan Al Neyadi.
Mr Duke believes only private companies will travel to Earth’s orbit in the future, with government agencies likely to focus on the Moon and Mars.
Several private companies, such as Blue Origin and Nanoracks, have announced plans to build a commercial station in orbit, while space agencies from the US, China and Russia look to plans for a base on the Moon.
Commercial tourism is going to multiply as they get more and more vehicles and the price will come down
Charles Duke,
US astronaut
Nasa’s focus is on its Artemis programme, which involves sending humans back to the lunar surface and building a station in Moon’s orbit to be used in future Mars missions.
“I think Nasa is going to turn over Earth orbit to the private companies because of the amount of money it’s going to take to get to the Moon again with Artemis. It’s going be a strained budget, in my opinion,” Mr Duke said.
“Commercial tourism is going to multiply as they get more and more vehicles and the price will come down. These guys are in business to make money and I think they know how to do that.
“I see Nasa focusing on Artemis and deep space. The Moon is a great place for a science station. You have no atmosphere, there’s no pollution and it’s just a beautiful sky up there.”
The first human lunar landing since the Apollo era was recently delayed by a year to 2025. Nasa plans to send the next man and first woman to the lunar surface.
Emotional moment
Mr Duke described what it was like to look back at Earth from the Moon’s surface.
“To me, one of the most moving moments was right after we left Earth orbit,” he said.
“Our orbit was on the way to the Moon, but we were going south across the equator. When we turned our spacecraft around to retrieve the lunar module, I looked out the window on the right and into my window floated the Earth and it was about 30,000 kilometres away.
“You could see the whole circle of the Earth and it was just suspended up there in a blackness of space – it was an emotional moment for me.
“We could see the Arctic Circle down across Canada, the US and Mexico and Central America was the land mass. When I look back at the pictures, they really capture the emotions.”
UAE astronauts could land on the Moon one day, with the authorities in discussions with Nasa regarding the Artemis programme.
Dr Al Neyadi told the panel that going to the Moon was his “ultimate goal”.
“We hear a lot of ambitious plans to go back to the Moon through the Artemis programme – I definitely would like to be part of that,” he said.
“Going to the Moon and following in the footsteps of great heroes and legends, I think that is the ultimate goal, personally, and for my colleagues as well.”
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
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Medicus AI
Started: 2016
Founder(s): Dr Baher Al Hakim, Dr Nadine Nehme and Makram Saleh
Based: Vienna, Austria; started in Dubai
Sector: Health Tech
Staff: 119
Funding: €7.7 million (Dh31m)
The five pillars of Islam
What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
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Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
Stage: Series A
Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors
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Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
The biog
Favourite car: Ferrari
Likes the colour: Black
Best movie: Avatar
Academic qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in media production from the Higher Colleges of Technology and diploma in production from the New York Film Academy
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The Sheikh Zayed Future Energy Prize
This year’s winners of the US$4 million Sheikh Zayed Future Energy Prize will be recognised and rewarded in Abu Dhabi on January 15 as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainable Week, which runs in the capital from January 13 to 20.
From solutions to life-changing technologies, the aim is to discover innovative breakthroughs to create a new and sustainable energy future.
Thor: Ragnarok
Dir: Taika Waititi
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Mark Ruffalo, Tessa Thompson
Four stars
FINAL SCORES
Fujairah 130 for 8 in 20 overs
(Sandy Sandeep 29, Hamdan Tahir 26 no, Umair Ali 2-15)
Sharjah 131 for 8 in 19.3 overs
(Kashif Daud 51, Umair Ali 20, Rohan Mustafa 2-17, Sabir Rao 2-26)
Asia Cup 2018 Qualifier
Sunday's results:
- UAE beat Malaysia by eight wickets
- Nepal beat Singapore by four wickets
- Oman v Hong Kong, no result
Tuesday fixtures:
- Malaysia v Singapore
- UAE v Oman
- Nepal v Hong Kong
Barings Bank
Barings, one of Britain’s oldest investment banks, was
founded in 1762 and operated for 233 years before it went bust after a trading
scandal.
Barings Bank collapsed in February 1995 following colossal
losses caused by rogue trader Nick Lesson.
Leeson gambled more than $1 billion in speculative trades,
wiping out the venerable merchant bank’s cash reserves.
New Zealand 15 British & Irish Lions 15
New Zealand 15
Tries: Laumape, J Barrett
Conversions: B Barrett
Penalties: B Barrett
British & Irish Lions 15
Penalties: Farrell (4), Daly
WandaVision
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany
Directed by: Matt Shakman
Rating: Four stars
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
World Cup final
Who: France v Croatia
When: Sunday, July 15, 7pm (UAE)
TV: Game will be shown live on BeIN Sports for viewers in the Mena region
