One of the most well-respected astronauts from the international space station, Cmdr. Chris Hadfield predicts that after 30, at most 40 years, man will have a colony on the Moon.
He attracted public interest by publishing thousands of pictures from space in his Twitter profile, as well as the recording of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" in 0 gravity. Hadfield predicts that he himself will be able to see the functioning Moon base, since this will happen before the end of his life.
Hadfield believes that around another 70 years will be needed for a base on Mars. He presumes that these two objectives are the next logical steps in man's exploration of space.
Humans have been gradually conquering the world. This pattern has been observed for the past 70, 000 years. In the past 100 of these, we have reached Antarctica, and there are even people who live there now. The famous astronaut is convinced that the same will happen with the Moon.
A permanent occupation would tremendously help for the better study of space. Hatfield believes that the future Moon base will include China and India, who have been greatly developing their space programs.
In 2013, the 54-year-old astronaut retired after a 35 year career. He has traveled to space three times, has been part of two space shuttle missions and has served as a commander of the international space station. According to him, it will operate for another 15 years before it has to cease working.
The space station is already releasing ammonia into space - the substance needed for its cooling. The forced return of the ISS to Earth will have to happen most likely over an ocean, to avoid the uncontrolled falling of debris over populated areas.
After the falling of the ISS, a base on the Moon will be constructed. And, according to the most recent discoveries that there is water under the surface of Mars, this gives hope that there will also be a base on the red planet within about 70-100 years.
