There would be people living in research bases on the moon. Fifty years have passed since the last Apollo mission.

Maybe not so incorrect.

A multi-disciplinary team at the Open University is trying to find a way to extract water from the moon's lunar rock, with the idea that this could lead to a continued human presence on the moon.

It would be easier for humans to explore deeper into the solar system if we lived on the moon in self-sufficient research stations.

You can see it whenever there is a clear sky. I want to know what secrets our nearest neighbour has. He said that the moon has a lot of secrets that can tell us about the history of our own Earth.

One of the greatest mysteries is the far side of the moon.

Regolith, a type of moon rock, was collected during the original Apollo missions. For a long time, scientists thought there was no water on the moon, but they discovered that regolith has a high oxygen content, which means water can be produced by adding hydrogen and heating the soil.

Satellite data that shows water ice at the cold lunar poles has spawned further research by the Open University into how this can be analysed.

The next Artemis mission will send an instrument to drill into rock and analyse water.

It costs an estimated $1 million to bring a kilogram of any substance into space, so it would be more cost-effective to extract water.

According to the researcher leading on the instrument's development, if we can find resources to live on land, we reduce the size of backpack we take.

The robotic missions are the beginning. We need to understand the environment before sending humans there.

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Prof Mahesh Anand holds a piece of lunar rock

Prof Mahesh Anand holds a piece of lunar rock. Photograph: courtesy of the Open University

Researchers on other planets should take a more sustainable approach to learning from Earth mistakes. Growing plants in volcanic ash is similar to moon dust, and melting moon dust with microwaves is part of his research. He uses the microwave technology developed for reprocessing moon dust to extract valuable materials from mine waste.

The European Space Agency, which funds and coordinates much of Europe's space research, believes that the Open University's research feeds into a new large-scale programme of European lunar exploration.

During the time of the cold war, lunar exploration received a huge boost. The soviet union and west were competing about who would be the first to arrive. Technology was in the forefront because of politics. He said that there was some science done but it was on the back burner.

For a long time there was limited funding for lunar missions, but recently it has picked up again. Some countries have focused on the moon and have been very successful. A new race to the moon has arisen due to that.

The space race is driven more by science than politics. Crewed lunar landings are expected to start within three to five years, with research bases that accept guests on the horizon for the next 50 years.

A new chapter has begun for the first time since the cold war. He is not surprised that these are exciting times for lunar science and exploration, as it is natural for humans to want to make the next steps.

The incorrect suggestion that the far side of the moon doesn't get the sun's rays was removed from the article.