GoKawiilA NASA satellite’s camera captured the far side of the Moon as it passed in front of Earth.Credit: NASA/NOAA
Curiosity draws us to the cosmos, and as a planetary scientist, I am excited about the upcoming Artemis II mission. With its crewed trip around the Moon, humanity is poised to leave Earth orbit for the first time since 1972.
It might also be the point at which humanity decides to commit to becoming a space-faring civilization — and to the decades of hard work that this will require.
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The Moon remains compelling for further exploration, even with the knowledge gained from the Apollo missions and more than 50 years of robotic mission data. Its surface offers the Solar System’s most pristine record of how a planetary crust forms and evolves. It provides evidence of asteroid and comet hits that are key to understanding the history of Earth and the inner Solar System. We now know that the Moon hosts water, although we don’t understand where it comes from, how much there is and whether, on an airless body, it cycles from solid to vapour like it does on Earth.
In the longer term, the Artemis programme aims to set up a permanent base on the Moon, which could become a step towards sending humans to Mars. Although the programme is driven now by technical goals, the scope for science is huge. Any researcher in the world could study the rock and ice samples that might be routinely brought back. A radio telescope built on the lunar far side, shielded from electronic signals from Earth, would enable astronomers to peer into the cosmic dark ages. Exciting as the Moon is, we won’t find life there. But Mars has the potential to harbour signs of life in its thick snowpacks, ancient rock strata and possible aquifers.
Yet even with this future in reach, it is not a given. Any human mission is risky. Artemis II will be a success only when the astronauts return to Earth. And then will come the most fragile parts of the US Moon–Mars plan — the technological, programmatic and societal aspects.
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Technologically, landing on another planet is hard. Most first attempts fail. NASA recently pivoted its next mission, Artemis III, to in-space tests rather than a lunar landing. This adds a wise dose of realistic engineering milestones to the Artemis programme. It also gives NASA and industry more time to build up to the cadence of missions required to deliver crew and infrastructure to the Moon regularly.