Of mice and Moon

What did Nasa achieve last time it visited the Moon? Apollo 17, in December 1972, involved putting two astronauts, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, there for 75 hours. They used a lunar roving vehicle to collect 254lb of rock and dust samples from areas up to 4.7 miles from the landing site. Among them was some orange dust believed to have originated in a volcanic eruption 3.5bn years ago. Experiments were also conducted into the flow of heat from the centre of the Moon to the surface, into minor changes in gravitational force, and the effect of cosmic rays on mice. At the end, Cernan said that he thought humans would return ‘not too long into the future’.

North Sea hopes

Can the North Sea avert the energy crisis?

— At the end of 2020, according to the Oil and Gas Authority, there were 4.4bn barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) of known oil and gas reserves in the UK continental shelf. However, in 2017, the authority estimated that 14.9bn BOE could be extracted between now and 2050. By comparison, 45.9bn BOE had already been extracted from the UK continental shelf by the end of 2020.

— New discoveries are stalling: at the end of 2017 known reserves stood at 5.4bn BOE, 1bn higher than at the end of 2020 as production outstripped new finds.

— North Sea oil and gas production have both fallen by 70% since their peak at the turn of the century.

Tunnel visions

Eurostar announced it is to cease direct services from London to Disneyland Paris next year, blaming Brexit. But has Eurostar attracted the 25m passengers it promised?

Annual passenger numbers

1995 3m

1997 6m

2001 7m

2005 7.5m

2009 9.2m

2013 10.1m

2019 11.1m

Settling in

How well have Ukrainian refugees settled in Britain? 93% of those here in April were still in Britain in the period from 20 July to 4 August. 42% are employed and 93% have a bank account. 37% say they have enough money to survive for the next three months. 21% have been assessed as suffering from general anxiety disorder. 43% say they have had problems persuading employers to accept their qualifications.

Source: Office for National Statistics