Retired Astronaut: Humans Will Live On The Moon Within 40 Years

Retired astronaut Chris Hadfield has predicted that humans will have a colony on the moon within the next 30 to 40 years and establish a base on Mars within the next 70, Sarah Knapton from The Telegraph reports.

Hadfield, who gained fame for tweeting pictures of space and performing his own version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" during his command of the International Space Station (ISS) this year, discussed the future of human space exploration in a public appearance at the Science Museum in London on Monday.

"It's a pattern we have been following for the last 70,000 years," the astronaut said. "We gradually made our way around the world. In the last 100 years we have got to Antarctica and now there are people who live there for months at a time."

"I think within my lifetime we will see a permanent lunar base. Setting up a permanent habitation on the Moon will help make space exploration better," he added.

Hadfield believes that humans will begin building a lunar base once the aging ISS is decommissioned, something that will happen in around 15 years, he said. This will be made possible with the help of countries like India and China, which both have ambitious space plans.

China successfully carried out the first soft-landing on the moon in nearly 40 years on Saturday. In November, India launched its first mission to Mars.

Hadfield, 54, retired from the Canadian Space Agency in June. He is currently on tour promoting his new book "An Astronaut's Guide To Life on Earth."