I'm just barely old enough to remember the first moon landing in 1969 (my parents woke me up and I have a recollection of the grainy video on our TV, of Neil Armstrong stepping out onto the lunar surface). And I've essentially been a fan of the whole space program ever since.
Those of you who know me know that my graduate research was a NASA-funded grant related to the Space Shuttle. So you likely know that I am a BIG fan of the space program (hence why there are regular posts about space!).
NASA committed to a return to the moon (more on that in a moment), and they recently stepped up the program from its fairly slow pace, to try and make it happen sooner.
Artemis is the name of the program, and that name comes from Greek Mythology. Artemis was the goddess of the hunt and the wilderness, which makes a lot of sense.
You had the Artemis 1 launch that sent an unmanned craft around the moon in 2022. Artemis 2 launched this week, which has a crew of four astronauts heading around the moon. They won't be landing, but what better way to see how these missions will go than by sending astronauts to the moon as we did with Apollo!
Now to the pressing question, and what the media can't quite get: why are we returning to the moon after 50 years? The answer lies in our human need to explore. The next great frontier is space. We have a (tentative?) plan to create a new space station, and there is a desire to build a moon base. They're all part of the nature of continued exploration.
And there's also some measure of scientific discovery in this moon return. There are some hints as to the universe's origins on the lunar surface, and perhaps we can start to get more insights into the Earth's weather, since the moon has a direct impact on the tides and therefore contributes to our climate.
But... of course there is the elephant in the room. You can talk about nationalism, pride, exploration, and science. But without a financial motivator, there is no reason to return.
In case you wondered, the moon may have some significant mineral deposits which have some value. And there's deeper space to explore and (to a point) exploit. Those are certainly motivating factors, too.
Further reading:
https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/why-are-we-going-to-the-moon-artemis-nasa-again-89dsbs29f
