In September, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) decided to roll back the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from Complex 39A to the Vehicle Assembly Building ahead of the expected arrival of Hurricane Ian. This delays the much-anticipated launch of the first mission of the Artemis program — NASA’s mission to bring humans back to the moon for the first time in 50 years and, this time, for good. Artemis I will be a roughly monthlong unmanned flight around the moon using NASA’s new SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, which are now expected to take off sometime between Nov. 12 and Nov 27. Eventually, Artemis III will be the first manned moon-landing in 50 years and will be accomplished by the first female astronaut and women of color to do so. While the world waits for this momentous occasion, I think it’s as good a time as ever to explain why this mission is important enough for you to care.
Ever since Alan Shepard became the first American to reach space in 1961, America has had an interest in space travel. So, why did we stop going to the moon? Admittedly, a large part of it had to do with the Cold War and a fear of giving the Soviet Union any control of space. The detente in United States and Soviet relations in the early 1970s correlated directly with a drastic cut in space spending. Further domestic and international issues, such as the Watergate scandal, the Vietnam War and civil rights movements, all distracted the nation from our nearest celestial body. While space exploration did persist with the shuttle program, the International Space Station and the launch of space telescopes, it has been far too long since we have visited the moon.
Beyond the geopolitical target, which was the moon during the Space Race, exploring our nearest celestial body continues to have enormous scientific benefits. First of all, just getting to the moon in the 1960s involved enormous innovations, particularly in computing. As NASA says on its website, MIT developed a revolutionary computer, which, at the time, was the compact size of a refrigerator and capable of operating at a 12-microsecond clock speed. Such power is dwarfed by our modern computers’ capacities, but it set our computer revolution in motion. Likewise, before we landed on the moon, we sent the first low Earth orbit satellites to study the Earth in different wavelengths of light, paving the way for the Landsat program, which has since been used to analyze our climate and study climate change.
Today, the moon offers even more exciting possibilities than ever before. Just recently, the moon was confirmed to have frozen water at the bottom of its dark craters. With the existence of water, there is, of course, the real possibility of some form of life on our very own moon. Such water, if purified, can provide drinking water to future astronauts and lunar dwellers, be distilled to produce breathable oxygen and can even be converted into fuel for spaceships. Moreover, the moon contains valuable materials that can be used for constructing solar panels and — with materials like helium — fueling further space exploration.
Unlike the Apollo missions, Artemis seeks to return to the moon for good. NASA plans to set up an “Artemis Base Camp ‘’ — a permanent structure on the moon to support future moon missions. In addition, the “Gateway” will act much like the International Space Station, serving as a space station in orbit around the moon as opposed to the Earth. The Gateway will act like a space lab for future study of the moon as well as a staging point for deep space exploration to and from the moon. To that end, the moon’s low gravity and little atmosphere will serve as a far better platform to launch rockets to other space destinations. NASA plans to use the tools on the moon to get humans to Mars sometime in the next decade or so.
Exploring other planets presents the most exciting new chapter for our species since perhaps the age of exploration half a millennium ago. The fact that such a monumental change in our species may begin in our lifetime gives us much to be excited for. During the last era of great exploration, the amount of new knowledge acquired shaped our modern world. The need for navigation fueled the growth of maps and astronomy, while new species in the New World became staple crops, feeding a growing world population. New ideas of our own political self-worth were all fostered by this change. The point is that a new millennium will be brought on by revisiting the moon, and future intergalactic humans will look back at us with envy, jealous of a time when the course of our species was irrevocably changed for the better.
Peter Levy is an undeclared sophomore.