you're watching d.w. news up next reporter an aspiring astronaut straining to land on the moon and don't forget you can get all the latest news and information around the clock on our website at steve w. dot com and you can always download our app for all the latest breaking news from push notifications and to send us your photos and videos on my actuator and roland thank you so much for watching. it's been 15 years since the man. she was the 1st man to walk.

where. there's a small boy she dreamed of the stars. as a place she's seen anything no matter how to. church or go to the. master he took part in the greatest adventure in history. you know armstrong was his destiny starts july 20th d.w. . wants to go to the moon 50 years after the 1st lunar landing he's training to be one of the next astronauts to set foot on the moon and may be the 1st european. luna missions have taken a back seat for decades but now a news. i can.

get. there with. appearances can be deceiving this dusty landscape is not the moon but a volcanic surface on the spanish island. and french astronaut training. gearing up for the next moon landing or they're testing special equipment and gathering igneous rock which is similar to that found on the moon. does make it to the moon he'll need to be able to identify everything he sees

. no it wouldn't. last. that's the beauty of a. this is what i was looking for but when i walk on the moon there will be many rocks there are rocks all around us. i know why should i bring this one and not the others well that's part of my training. on this in the volcano 2 days ago. but also. doesn't mean it's all a being a mineral that comes from deep underground from close to the earth's mantle and there this month was the geologists are really keen on making a discovery like this on the moon because samples like this could tell you a lot about the moon's composition. because more. would you also miss the hope of course is that someday i might find a great stone or sample like this on the moon and i feel that so much by just 5

minutes away on foot there's a command center this team is practicing how to communicate with astronauts on the moon and the scientists are in the blue tent next to it ground control. we are seeing side e.v.a.'s she was 1700. looking still we got a read of it on the good. outside journalists awaiting them mainly from the local media they're interested in mathias moua the astronauts. had a good look at the yes that you've been able he recently tweeted life isn't always fair my 2 good friends did all the hard work and only i got the attention which after all the commotion my own returns to the desolate landscape. when he gets here when i'm walking on the surface of. i feel a bit as if i'm on the moon the moon on. i'm really getting to get there 1st one

after that some more laws about but i can tell from the technology that it's still a long way off we've still got to learn a lot improve a lot from our it is 49 he was born a year after the 1st moon landing some of these scoops stayed back to the apollo mission they are being tested here to see if they can be improved on the new agreement that. it's been decades since astronauts have practiced a lunar landing. it had gone out of fashion for a time but now interest has revived all over the world the astronaut center in cologne germany is part of the european space agency a cell you have to annoy and there's a new race to the moon not between the soviet union and the u.s. like 50 years ago you know i'm going on this is much more of an economic race it's about being the 1st to fly to the moon the 1st to achieve dominance in space it's

about various countries have realized that they can seize and create an economic advantage given in the 1st ones who can get there will make the rules that the u.s. of course wants to be 1st and stake its claim with china has taken them on and they want to land on the moon by 2030 and also to build their own space station that's one of our. you know. china is investing heavily in space travel so many is learning mandarin as well as russian he wants to cooperate with chinese astronauts and eventually fly to their planned space station. of the woman from who are. you can make beautiful things from plastic. this is what. the chinese mentality. young. young pseudo.

p.r. young donkey than 2 years ago mao to went to china for some training everything took place in mandarin. or the chinese the words for moon are always the same you're the 1st i thought it was you long yeah yeah you know i kept saying i wanted to fly to the u.n. on what i should have said utah. advice if i can see the moon i have to say you along like the moonlight is beautiful. of any but when i say i want to fly there i have to say you troll right. ok. the chinese space capsule will have a white limit for astronauts 75 kilos so fitness is a key part of training. this is

a typical exercise that prepares you for space the space suit is so tight that you can practically only use your arms when there's a risk of injuring your shoulder muscles one is the cause of the fight as well so we do special exercises to strengthen all the tiny muscles not the big ones which i also don't have right now but the tiny ones on the inside and. some of the hunchbacked. that. i was just last month this is what you need very often when you're doing evy a training grant is important internal pressure is 0.4 bar so just moving my hands takes the same effort is trying to squeeze a tennis ball then we practice by taking heavy weights and walking around it's called the farm walk the walk. these aren't special exercises to insure that astronauts are fit for the moon they

still have to be developed these exercises were designed for the international space station mauer will most likely be going there soon but he still has his sights set on the moon. next stop is virtual new reality is practicing how to use the technology on the moon. if i were. here on the virtual noon the sky's the limit. pick that one up. and see how strong i am i would throw it towards the earth. i was missing what i feel right yet dangerous. to the left but with so much training what is the biggest. all backs of life as an

astronaut. drawbacks there aren't any it's kind of b. i don't feel like i'm missing out on anything i'm really enjoying it i mean every day is different since the days are long and intense i put in more hours than an ordinary 40 hour work week but i enjoy it and i have the right to say it's getting to be too much but i enjoy it and it's a really interesting job. leave it there and i love talking about it telling people what the training entails how we're preparing for the future. then telling people how important it is and sparking their enthusiasm look at what we're doing these next 10 years will determine what directions things will take in space and who will come out on top so to speak before we europeans have to be part of it and i thought . to spread the word marriage does a lot of air travel to training sessions in china or norway or to a p.r. event in spain but today in berlin he takes the bus instead of

a taxi. think of him as an astronaut so my carbon footprint is bad enough as it is . that's how it is. that's. in the evening he has a little time off well almost i think he's meeting d.h. schmidt a colleague from me so. i'm on one scoop of macadamia please and one blueberry cream you know. so you know so what's his favorite flavor of the coconut but there isn't any today. this is blueberry ice cream and blueberries are supposed to be good for the eyes. it's making russian cosmonauts often eat blueberries. in the station it can hurt things i wish i didn't think of

it i mean. it's a how's it look with our is a council this november. and that's a lot of changing of course the americans are no longer planning for 2028 but for 2024 years out there it's going along so. we need to make sure germans are involved also. germany and europe want to be a part of the u.s. is ambitious plan to send people to the moon by 2024. mathias mera is a 1000000000 planetarium to help convince politicians and business leaders to support the moon mission. and he might be there to be asked you know what. it's great that you're here welcome. please complete the sentence i'm glad that people are going back to the moon because i soon because it will be an amazing adventure and not only for astronauts. with the right technology we can bring

everyone along using virtual 3 d. technology that people can just put on a headset and join us when we explore the moon. everyone here agrees they all want to go to the moon but what america's real chances of landing on the moon. there are 7 active astronauts in the european astronaut corps so you could say that i have a one in 7 chance. but i think it's a bit presumptious to say that i have such and such percent chance. though that something you have to work towards about over the next few years i'll have to work hard to make sure i'm in the pool of candidates isn't which is i'm going also on national. i'm not will depend on government policy in november he says council of ministers will decide whether to pump money into the race till then mathias mara will continue to dream of being the next person to set foot on the moon.

following up on germany's former division. today i want to take you on a little tour along the border between has set and there really is yeah 30 years ago the iron curtain divided the world into east and west like here. find out what has changed since reunification and we'll explore what else there was for visitors to see today. an impossible journey. mido once to return to gaza. the german palestinian will be leaving a successful life in berlin with his thing this is all i can think about to see my family again but no one can guarantee that he'll be able to see them given the man

who was going to have to know or be at the border post i would hope we get into the . 60 minutes w. . bring to read. not everyone who loves books has to go in the same. t.w. literature list 100 german must reads.

i've always wanted to show you around my home town. a small city in the state of hessen in the heart of germany.