Café Sci Cambridge: Moon landings 50 years on

Wed 10 July 2019

Espresso Library

The human race first set foot on the Moon in July 1969 – exactly 50 years ago this month. Through the Apollo programme, NASA astronauts made a total of 6 exploratory landings of the lunar surface from 1969 - 1972. Over the course of the missions, many experiments were undertaken and a total of 382 kg of moon rock was brought back to earth. These rock samples fundamentally changed our view of the Moon and five decades later continue to provide new and important insights on how the Moon formed. During this evening we’ll take a look at some of these key advances. We’ll also look to the future, discussing how the Moon could be used as a stepping stone for exploration deeper into the solar system.

John Pernet-Fisher is a planetary geologist based at the University of Manchester. He uses volcanic rocks that have been either directly sampled from extra-terrestrial bodies, or have fallen to the Earth as meteorites in order to understand how the inner solar system bodies form and evolve. His research primarily focuses on studying the Moon as a proxy for understanding geological processes that occurred on the early Earth.

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This is a free and non-ticketed event.
Doors open at 18:45 so arrive early to avoid disappointment.

Cost: free