ASTRONAUT Neil Armstrong famously took "one small step" during the Moon landing in 1969.

But a new University of Worcester project hopes millions of small steps will add up to one big goal.

The university's‘Moon Mission’ will see members of the community from across the region taking part in any physical activity to collectively travel the 477,714 miles to the Moon and back.

This could be walking, pushing, running, pedalling, swimming, toddling, rowing, wheeling or other physical endeavour.

The initiative was developed following the success of last year's ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ scheme.

The mission encourages people to be more physically active, and will engage children and adults from schools, colleges, community groups and clubs, as well as individuals.

It will take off on Friday, March 20 to coincide with the Spring Equinox and a partial solar eclipse and people will then have until July 31 – the last full moon of the month – to log their miles.

As of yesterday (January 26), people can register an interest in taking part.

Louise Jones, director of health and wellbeing at the university, said: “We are hoping to get individuals, sports clubs, community groups, businesses, in fact everyone, involved in this mission to take the region to the Moon and back.

"It’s a fantastic opportunity to get out and try something new, or just to get active in this New Year.

"We are really hoping as many people as possible will get involved."

People will be able to log their journeys on at worcester.ac.uk/moonmission, which will give a rolling status of each individual’s miles, as well as the overall total.

Those taking part have been asked to share their individual stories about how they are contributing to the mission.

“We want to hear about the many ways people are getting active to help us reach this target of 477,714 miles, and we will be giving some incentives along the way,” Mrs Jones said.

To find out more about the mission, or to sign up to take part, visit worcester.ac.uk/moonmission.