Throughout July the world has been celebrating 50 years since Apollo 11, when Neil Armstrong took those historic first steps on the Moon. In this episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester looks to the future, at the prospects of returning humans to the Moon before setting our sights on Mars.

Glester reports from the Blue Dot festival at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, UK. There, he enjoyed a lively mix of contemporary music, scientific talks, and plenty of other creative performances. In the podcast, you will also hear from:

• Monica Grady, professor of planetary and space science at the Open University
• Michaela Musilova, an astrobiologist and director of the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (seas.org/">HI-SEAS).
• Libby Jackson, director of human space flight at the UK Space Agency.
• Kerry Sanz, operations director of MDA, a company offering LiDAR mapping technologies.

This podcast follows on from the June episode of Physics World Stories, which looked back at some of the lesser known stories from the Apollo era. For a comprehensive view of the Apollo legacy and future space travel, take a look at the July special issue of Physics World.