Everyone knows of the famed mission to the moon and the Apollo program. Since the closure of the Apollo missions, humanity has not been back on the moon. With the Artemis missions, NASA seeks to change that.
What is the Artemis Program?
What is referred to as the ‘Artemis Program’ actually consists of a multi-layered plan. The ultimate end goal is to have a permanent moon base that humans can live in. The first step has already been completed. An unmanned mission named Artemis 1 launched on November 16, 2022, and landed on December 11, 2022. The goal of said mission was to test and check the different technologies that would be used in all manned missions of the Artemis program. It acted as a dry run for the rest of the Artemis series. The mission was a success and has started the program on a good foot. Artemis II is in the works and will be the first manned flight of the Artemis chapter. A total of four astronauts will exit the Earth’s atmosphere to the moon. Once on the moon, the crew of the Orion spacecraft will perform diagnostic checks and collect data. While Artemis II is an additional test flight and will not land on the moon’s surface, it will provide the necessary information to NASA to perfect all future trips. Artemis II will also bring human beings the farthest they have ever gone from Earth. The launch is set to take place sometime in November 2024 and is planned to last ten days.
The New Artemis Technologies
The Artemis missions feature loads of new technology. In fact, the Orion spacecraft is unique to the Artemis program. Orion is capable of accommodating up to four crew members and is even able to, anthropomorphically, support 99% of the human population. This spacecraft has been successfully utilized in the first Artemis mission and will continue to be used throughout. Other technologies supporting the Artemis program include the IHAB, the human landing system, and the Gateway. One of the most interesting is the Gateway, which is a space station orbiting around the moon and will assist the crew in the Orion spacecraft in transferring to the human landing system, which in this context is very self-explanatory. The IHAB is a habitat designed for human life and will allow humans to live on the moon’s surface for extended periods of time. It will be one of the first permanent human settlements on the moon.
Why do these missions matter?
The missions are nice and all, but what people want to know is why we are going back to the moon. NASA states that they are going for science, economics, and inspiration. Scientifically, the moon is a billion-year-old time capsule with tons of information awaiting to be discovered. NASA hopes that the Artemis missions to the moon will provide much-needed insight into the origins of said celestial body. The moon also provides a unique environment that can be utilized in a wide variety of experiments. For this reason, the first settlements on the moon will be entirely research-related. As the human presence becomes more permanent on the moon, it will be useful to study human life and development in a low-gravity environment. However, science isn’t everything, and for some people, it is not enough of a reason. That is why NASA promises that the Artemis program will revitalize the space industry, and provide hundreds of jobs to people. NASA wishes to leverage human presence on the moon to rapidly advance space technology in both the public and private sectors. Just like the colonization during the “Age of Exploration”, we can expect business interests to push forward a large part of lunar settlement. Additionally, the more humans research within the field of science, the better we become at it. So it is to be understood that as the scientific and commercial relationships with the moon grow, humanity will become more and more skilled at space travel, a skill which can only help us in the foreseeable future. The third and final justification for NASA going to the moon is to inspire a new generation of explorers. To put it simply, we are the Artemis generation.
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