AbacusAs the US-China space and arms race takes off, these investments should too

I was eight when the Americans landed on the moon. Like many little boys, I had a fascination with space and astronomy, and was wholly into the excitement and adventure of space flight. At school we drew pictures of the moon-landing dress rehearsal, Apollo 10, coming back to earth. My rocket had engines firing, engulfed in smoke and flames, with legs popping out the side of the metal tube. I added a parachute and a spaceman waving at the top, and got quite upset when everyone else in the class drew a little grey triangle with three striped parachutes and made fun of my drawing. They had all seen it on television, but we didn’t have one. My parents quickly got us one before the Apollo 11 mission.

The Americans and the Russians were constantly sending up rockets, landing probes on the moon, Mars and beyond, and I read all about it in the boys’ magazines I amassed. We had fantastic ideas of colonising the moon, but it later turned out it had just been talk. The truth was that the Americans just wanted to land a man on the moon first to get one over on the Russians, who had beaten America to space.