. -- dhara patel. we have seen — first attempt. -- dhara patel.ara patel. we - have seen private companies attempt to land on the lunar surface last year and early this year as well in the fact we now have the first private company being able to successfully land on the moon is opening up the door to commercial lunar exploration.— lunar exploration. what will this robot actually _ lunar exploration. what will this robot actually do? _ lunar exploration. what will this robot actually do? what - lunar exploration. what will this robot actually do? what is - lunar exploration. what will this robot actually do? what is in - lunar exploration. what will this | robot actually do? what is in the payload? of this is a private mission, but nassar have kind of got payloads on board, so if you scientific experiments —— nasa. notably from nassar, it will be looking at the lunar environment, specifically where this lander has placed itself on the lunar surface, one of which is to look at things like the lunar dust. in the apollo missions, this dust would actua

joining me now is dhara patel, from uk's national space centre. why is this such a momentous move? time that we have a private company successfully touching down on the lunar surface we have had a number of different nations landing successfully on the moon but this sets the way for more commercial lunar exploration and sets the groundwork for the artemis programme which is to take humans back to the moon in the next couple of years. fist back to the moon in the next couple of ears. �* . ., of years. at a time when we have heard about _ of years. at a time when we have heard about the _ of years. at a time when we have heard about the cost _ of years. at a time when we have heard about the cost of _ of years. at a time when we have heard about the cost of living - heard about the cost of living crisis, that people will support this kind of mission when so many people are struggling with bills and hardships on earth? it is people are struggling with bills and hardships on earth?— hardships on earth? it is right for --eole to hardships on earth? it is right for people to question _ ha

dhara patel is a space expert at the uk's national space centre.e aerospace exploration agency is one that debuted on its inauguralflight last year but it didn't go successfully. so, last march it attempted to launch and unfortunately the second stage of the rocket did not ignite, and from ground control they had to basically have a controlled explosion which meant that the satellite aboard was also destroyed. it's had setbacks and delays in various missions, the test flight that has just happened now, successful as it was, really does put japan back now, successful as it was, really does putjapan back in does put japan back in that competitive mix.— does put japan back in that competitive mix. what about the exoeriments _ competitive mix. what about the experiments that _ competitive mix. what about the experiments that it _ competitive mix. what about the experiments that it is _ competitive mix. what about the experiments that it is supposed l competitive mix. what about the l experiments that it is supposed to carry out? experiments that it is