Congratulations to the Artemis II crew – but the case for sending astronauts into space is rapidly shrinking | Martin Rees and Donald Goldsmith

Soon, thanks to the advance of robots, the only reason left to send humans to the moon will be as an ultra-expensive sportMartin Rees is the astronomer royal and a former president of the Royal Society; Donald Goldsmith is an astrophysicist and science communicatorThe 2020s has seen a revival of the “Apollo spirit”. The US and China are seemingly in a race to send humans to the moon by the end of the decade – and thereafter, perhaps, even to Mars. Nasa astronauts have just returned from a 10-day...