Lecture at Médiathèque José Cabanis in Toulouse on 30 april 2019.
Pr. Bernard Foing, astrophysicist ESA ESTEC, director ILEWG International Lunar Group, IAA member, professor at the VU Amsterdam, ISU, ISAE
The international community has launched an orbital flotilla around the moon (10 probes since SMART-1 in 2003) that will continue with manned missions using capsules (Orion or Dragon in the US, China, etc.) and international and commercial platforms. The robotic village on the lunar surface begun with Chang’E3 in 2013 is continuing in 2019 with new moon landers (Chang’E4, Chandrayaan2, entrepreneurs post GLXP). A large number of actors and users (in the spirit of a lunar village) are mobilising for sustainable living bases on the moon, developed as our 8th continent.