Henry the Navigator and the Moon

At the beginning of the 15th century a systematic programme of maritime exploration masterminded by prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal sparked the technological, scientific and cultural revolutions that connected Europe to the rest of the world. What made the Portuguese initiative different from their contemporaries’—and from the dawn of the space age—is a limited set of explicit, broad rationales. We have assessed some maritime and space exploration programmes against these rationales, and we infer that these programmes are successful when they are driven by a balanced combination of these rationales. With the appropriate caution linked to transposing historical parallels, this exercise may help bring into focus some factors that may help shaping a lunar initiative to open up the solar system.