Precious minerals and the potential for large profits could lie behind the renaissance of our lunar ambitions 28 July 2021 • 5:00am For centuries, humans have produced books, paintings, poems, and one famous Pink Floyd album about the mysterious “dark side” of the Moon Those old enough to remember it describe the events of July 20 1969 as a moment of near-incomparable excitement, as a 38-year-old Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on to the Moon’s cratered surface, followed by co-engineer Buzz Aldrin. A further 10 astronauts walked on the Moon in the following three years, all of them American. Then, interest quickly waned: since 1972, nobody has returned. The American flag planted by Armstrong on that first visit is probably still there, think scientists – there’s just nobody around to see it.