Michael Barbaro

Right.

Okay, those are pretty good odds.

So start by describing this mission.

Wow.

Why?

I mean, as you've just hinted at, some 50-so years ago, astronauts from the United States did that very thing.

So why are we doing it again?

Right.

So that's this mission.

Step one was, can we get an aircraft around the moon?

Step two is, can we get people on this craft to live?

Okay, and at this point, I may sound like a broken record, but why?

I mean, what is the rationale for trying to do this thing that we did with great fanfare 50-something years ago?

Right.

So...

What lies in the future is space research and potentially some serious commercial mining.

Wait, just so I understand.

We can build a giant listening post on the far side of the moon where it's dead quiet, and we could hear the ancient sounds of, really, the dawn of time itself.

Wow.

So basically we'd use the moon and its conditions and its gravity to figure out whether something we eventually want to have on Mars can first survive the moon.