Here's why we should forget about Mars right now and return to the moon

Hopes of colonising Mars rest on the premise that we could terraform the red planet, making it habitable for humans with a breathable atmosphere and clement temperatures. However, a recent study cast doubt on the idea, concluding that terraforming is impossible with present technology.

With colonising Mars on hold, it’s a good time to reevaluate the relationship we have with our nearest cosmic neighbour, the moon. The first successful lander on the moon was the Russian spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966. This mission revealed the barren lunar landscape in fine detail for the first time.

Since the dawn of the space age, there have been over 60 successful missions to the moon, including eight that were manned. The most famous being Apollo 11 in July 1969 which resulted in the first human presence on the moon.

These space pioneers broadened our understanding of Earth and the universe. The Apollo 15 mission of 1971, for example, recovered the so-called “Genesis Rock”, one of the oldest rock samples ever found from a crater on the moon. Analysis of other surface samples supported the “giant impact hypothesis”, a now predominant view that the moon formed from a giant impact on the Earth some 4.5 billion years ago.