Podcast: Moon landing special

In this edition: We commemorate 50 years since the Moon landing by looking ahead to the future of space travel, medicine and exploration.

Play the complete podcast (above)

You can catch the podcast on all your favourite platforms. Just click on any of the icons below.

OR listen to individual chapters:

News: Moon landing facts – We celebrate the Apollo 11 mission with some little-known facts about the moon landing, and look at the next mission heading to our nearest neighbour.

Future of space travel with Britain’s first astronaut – We chat to Helen Sharman, Britain’s first astronaut (and outreach ambassador at Imperial) about the future of spaceflight – will it be human or robotic? Will private companies take the lead? And should we go back to the Moon or focus on Mars?

Space medicine – Astronauts face unique challenges staying healthy in space, and these will only increase on a mission to Mars. We talk to an intensive care medic and a researcher, who has worked with both NASA and the European Space Agency, to find out more about the challenges of space medicine.

Human-robotic interactions in space – Working in space is difficult, from spacewalks to guiding robotics. We meet a researcher coming up with new ways to make these tasks easier, using sensors incorporated into new helmets and gloves.

Download the complete podcast (mp3)

–

The podcast is presented by Gareth Mitchell, a lecturer on Imperial's MSc Science Communication course and the presenter of Click Radio on the BBC World Service, with contributions from our roving reporters in the Research Communications group.