does there need to be have like a physical big piece of infrastructure where we actually interact across nations to be able to build the right environment to go forward as a humanity rather than just nationally

i think infrastructure does help if you've got a place something somewhere where all nations can contribute to actually building so it's good for industry in those nations whether you're building spacecraft, whether you're building parts of the infrastructure, whether you're providing the science, whether you're providing things like the robotic arm from Canada's point of view, or the logistics supply vehicles.

These are all things that nations can feel proud of.

They're contributing to some piece of infrastructure.

So infrastructure definitely helps.

But I don't think you have to have it.

I mean, I think...

Done it, yes.

But does there need to be have like a physical big piece of infrastructure where we actually interact across nations to be able to build the right environment to go forward as a humanity rather than just nationally?

I think infrastructure does help if you've got a place, something somewhere where all nations can contribute to actually building.

So it's good for industry in those nations.

whether you're building spacecraft, whether you're building parts of the infrastructure, whether you're providing the science, whether you're providing things like the robotic arm from Canada's point of view, or the logistics supply vehicles.

These are all things that nations can feel proud of.

They're contributing to some piece of infrastructure.

So infrastructure definitely helps.

Done it,

But does there need to be have like a physical big piece of infrastructure where we actually interact across nations to be able to build the right environment to go forward as a humanity rather than just nationally.

And that's a really good question.

I think infrastructure does help if you've got a place, something, somewhere where all nations can contribute to actually building.

So it's good for industry in those nations, whether you're building spacecraft, whether you're building parts of the infrastructure, whether you're providing the science, whether you're providing things like the robotic arm from Canada's point of view, or the logistics supply vehicles.

These are all things that nations can feel proud of.

They're contributing to some piece of infrastructure.

So infrastructure definitely helps.

Done it,

Have we now solved that big worry over the protection of the heat shield?

I think we have.

And, and to put this into context, actually, what we were trying with Artemis I was something new, this, um, skip reentry.

And the reason for that is because it does make it easier on the crew.

It turns it f- you know, from that sort of 7 G reentry the Apollo astronauts would've experienced to a much more comfortable 4 G reentry.

And you achieve that by dipping into the atmosphere, slowing yourself down a bit.

The spacecraft actually generates a little bit of lift, so you use that lift to come back out of the atmosphere and then go back in a second time, and the whole process is more gentle on the vehicle, it's more gentle on the crew, and it also gives you flexibility to adjust your landing site.

And back to this Artemis, what, what kind of r-r-results are you looking forward to reading about from the experiments this crew have carried out?

Although, Tim, there were a couple of, um, last-minute glitches, weren't there? Glitches that were fixed quite quickly, but nonetheless they were there.

there.Yeah, they were, absolutely.

They had firstly a, a bit of a problem with the, uh, termination system.

This is the system that would, would be used to actually destroy the rocket in the event that it came off course and caused a danger to the public, and they lost communication, so that was a kinda no-go.

It took them 50 minutes to repair it.

Actually, they ended up using some of the old shuttle hardware [laughs] to repair that.

And then they had a problem with the launch abort system.

And we will talk about Mars in a second, but Tim, this idea of a permanent moon base, um, just try and sort of paint a picture of what that facility would, would be.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

Tim spent a hundred and eighty-six days on the International Space Station, during which time he conducted a spacewalk, ran a marathon, and performed over two hundred and fifty experiments.

Having lived and worked in space, I know just how extraordinary these missions are, not only for the astronauts, but for everyone on the ground who makes them possible.

Until now, fewer than seven hundred people have had the privilege of going into space.

That number could increase remarkably in the coming years, and Artemis II could well represent the beginning of that new age.

Hello, Alex here from the team that brings you BBC Inside Science every week.

And we thought you might enjoy having a listen to the BBC's Space Podcast that's launching today.

NASA are sending four astronauts on a 10-day trip around the Moon, and our podcast, 13 Minutes presents Artemis 2, is the place to go for all the latest news and updates.

Here's space scientist Maggie Aderin with more.

Tim spent 186 days on the International Space Station, during which time he conducted a spacewalk, ran a marathon, and performed over 250 experiments.

Having lived and worked in space, I know just how extraordinary these missions are, not only for the astronauts, but for everyone on the ground who makes them possible.

Until now, fewer than 700 people have had the privilege of going into space.

That number could increase remarkably in the coming years, and Artemis 2 could well represent the beginning of that new age.

Tim, how do rockets travel to space?

OK, Dan, so some rockets travel just straight up into space and then some rockets travel into orbit where they actually spend long periods of time in space.

If you want to just go straight up and straight back down again, then your rocket has to get to 100 kilometers and it can simply fall back down to Earth.

And then you'll need a parachute or some rockets to slow you down and land.

But if you want to go into orbit, then you have to go up and then you have to get really, really fast.

Now, 25 times the speed of sound is how fast that's 17 and a half thousand miles per hour or 10 times the speed of a bullet.

So it takes a lot of fuel to get you that fast.

Is there a joystick? How are you powering yourself around up there?

I had the chance to paint while I was there, and it absolutely was one of the personal highlights of my time there.

I agree with Nicole.

It's amazing just to go to that cupola window and take photographs.

And I was not a particularly good photographer at the beginning of the mission.

I like to think that I improved somewhat during the mission.

But there's no better thing to do with your time off than just to go and look at that view of Earth and take photographs.

But we do also have some musical instruments up there.

We put together, in an international way, probably the best international cooperation I've seen or heard of ever, defined this higher mission of off the earth for the earth where ultimately everything is about improving life on earth and we came together and we did it we established the rules of engagements and we worked together to make it happen and i'm really really hopeful that people will be able to understand you know this place we've had in space and it'll be carried forward you know in other ways

Why did you leave?

It was a very hard decision, but I'd, all throughout my military career, certainly in the early days, I'd had to kind of fight against the system a little bit because as an officer, you're expected to do a certain number of jobs that, that pass you up the career chain, and these are more desk-bound jobs than flying jobs, and I was desperate to stay flying.

So that's why I became a helicopter instructor, um, and that's why I became a test pilot.

This was where my passion lay.

And I got to the point when I was a, a major, I was finishing my work as a test pilot, and the next job really had to be squadron command.

Um, but that was the point at which I realized, now my career is definitely going to go up the staff route, and I'd be taken away from the cockpit, and I still desperately wanted to fly.

So that's when I made the really difficult decision to continue working as a civilian test pilot with AgustaWestland.

What happened?