There’s always the dark side to check out.
US President Donald Trump is committed to launching men back to the moon within the next five years, and it appears that former Astronaut Charlie Duke agrees.
In an interview with Cheddar, Duke says that he “thinks we should be doing it.” His reason? To develop new technologies and systems needed for humans to be able to survive on our neighboring planet Mars.
“Buzz Aldrin wants to go to Mars, bypass the Moon,” Duke says. He also predicts that private companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Blue Origin will soon be dominating space travel that’s still near to Earth. NASA, on the other hand, will be left to handle farther missions.
Duke became the 10th and youngest person to land on the moon in 1972. He was a Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 16, following his role as a Capsule Communication for Apollo 11. During those times, he was able to communicate with both Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they went on their journey while he remained in Houston, at Mission Control. Back then Duke says that everyone working on the mission was thinking, “If this thing fails, it’s not going to be my fault.”
Currently, Duke is involved in the production of “Apollo 11,” an all-new documentary featuring a full cast and 40,000 square feet of 360-degree video projection. The former astronaut says that he thinks the story is “an exciting way to tell the Apollo Program story.”
