Why to Return to The Moon?

On September 12, 1962, United States president John F Kennedy informed the public of his plan to put one man on the Moon by the decade’s end.

It was the height of the Cold War, and also America needed a huge victory to demonstrate its space supremacy after the Soviet Union had launched the 1st satellite and also put the 1st man in orbit.

” We choose to go to the Moon,” Kennedy informed 40,000 people at Rice University, “since that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one that we intend to win.”

Sixty years on, the USA is about to launch the first mission of its return program to the Moon, Artemis. However, why repeat what has already been done?

Criticism has risen recently, for example, from Apollo eleven astronaut Michael Collins and the Mars Society founder Robert Zubrin, who have long advocated for America to go directly to Mars.

However, NASA argues that re-conquering the Moon is necessary before a journey to the Red Planet. Here is why.

Long space missions to return to the moon

NASA intends to develop a sustainable human presence on the Moon, with missions lasting several weeks— compared to simply a few days for Apollo.

The goal: is to understand better how to prepare for a multi-year round trip to Mars.

In deep space, radiation is more intense and poses a real damage to health.

Reduced Earth Orbit, where the International Space Station (ISS) operates, is partly shielded from radiation by the Planet’s magnetic field, which is not the case on the Moon.

Since the first Artemis mission, many experiments are planned to study the effect of this radiation on living organisms and to examine the effectiveness of an anti-radiation vest.

What is more, while the ISS can often be resupplied, trips to the Moon– a thousand times further– are much more complex.

To avoid needing to take everything with them and to conserve costs, NASA wants to learn how to use the sources present on the surface.

In particular, water in the form of ice, that has been confirmed to exist on the lunar south pole, could be changed into rocket fuel by cracking it into its different hydrogen and oxygen atoms.

Testing new gear

NASA likewise wants to pilot on the Moon the technologies that will continue to evolve on Mars. First, new spacesuits for spacewalks.

Their layout was turned over to the firm Axiom Area for the very first objective, which will arrive on the Moon in 2025 at the earliest.

Other needs: vehicles– both pressurized and unpressurized– so that the astronauts can move around, as well as environments.

Finally, for sustainable access to an energy resource, NASA is working on the advancement of mobile nuclear fission systems.

Solving any concerns that arise will be much easier on the Moon, only a few days away, than on Mars, which can just be reached in at least many months.

Establishing a waypoint

A main pillar of the Artemis program is constructing a space station in orbit around the Moon called Gateway, which will work as a relay before the trip to Mars.

All the necessary equipment could be sent there in “multiple launches” before finally being joined by the staff to set off on the long voyage, Sean Fuller, responsible for the Gateway program, told AFP.

” Kind of like you are quiting at your gas station to make sure you get all the stuff, and then you are off on your way.”

Maintaining leadership over China

Apart from Mars, another factor put forward by the Americans for settling on the Moon is to do so before the Chinese, that plan to send taikonauts by the year 2030.

China is the USA’s main competition today as the once proud Russian space program has perished.

“We do not want China suddenly getting there and saying, “This is our exclusive territory,” NASA boss Bill Nelson stated in a recent interview.

For the sake of science

While the Apollo missions brought back to Planet nearly 400 kilograms of lunar rock, recent samples will make it feasible to deepen further our knowledge of this celestial object and its formation.

” The samples we gathered during the Apollo missions changed how we see our solar system,” astronaut Jessica Meir told AFP. “I think we can also expect that from the Artemis program.”

She also expects further scientific and technological breakthroughs, just like during the Apollo era.

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