It’s been a long road since humans were physically on the Moon. Artemis II is a NASA-led mission where four astronauts will fly to the Moon, orbit it, and return to Earth by gravity alone. This is also called a free-return trajectory, as well as the exact technique that saved the Apollo 13 astronauts. When are we going to the moon? We’re aiming for Artemis II to take flight in April 2026!
I’m excited about this mission for many reasons. For one, we’ll see the entire mission to the Moon in high definition and watch with the whole world. To be able to say in my lifetime I’ve seen astronauts land on the Moon was something of a fantasy until late. Putting my curiosity hat back on, I have some questions about this mission:
Why are we going back to the Moon now? What are we hoping to learn from this? What happened to going to Mars? Let’s take a look at all these questions and learn together.
Mission Planning for Artemis II – Why are we going to the Moon?
From the last decade of watching how NASA and other space programs developed their programs, I have seen a big shift towards exploring the solar system’s Moons and, of course, the hot topic of Mars.
Artemis II looks like the Apollo mission at first glance, but it’s honestly much bigger than that. This brings us to our next question: why are we going to the Moon?
If Apollo is the mission that proved we can land on the Moon, then Artemis is saying, let’s go live on the Moon. We’re not talking Airbnbs on the Moon but building a Moonbase that will help us get to Mars.
NASA’s official explanation of why we’re going back ot the Moon is to establish a long-term presence on the Moon and use technologies and discoveries to benefit life on Earth and prepare for deeper space exploration.
The TL;DR?
- It’s a stepping stone to Mars
- It’s a collaborative effort that involves the world
- We’re looking to create a settlement there for permanent residence
- Apollo proved we could get to the Moon, while Artemis shows we can stay operational beyond Earth
High-level View of the Mission Plan
Take a look at the infographic below, as we’ll refer to it:
Steps 1-5: Launch the rocket, drop the solid rocket boosters, and get into lower Earth orbit!
Step 6-8: The Orion spacecraft will detach from the rest of the rocket and thrust around the Earth (1 day to complete). Orion will test a docking practice maneuver (ensure the autopilot works for current and future missions)
Steps 9-10: Trans-Lunar Injection (TLI) or the final push to the Moon, and do a free return trajectory
Step 11: Artemis II will do a flyby of the far side of the Moon and swing around
Steps 12-15 Artemis II will continue the free return trajectory back to Earth and land in water, where the Navy will pick them up
Going to the Moon – Scientific & Strategic Motivations
Credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown University/USGS
If we’re going to stay on the Moon for long periods of time, you will need to be resourceful. I’m talking about water on the Moon! Scientists have been getting data on how water moves across the Moon’s surface and extends to the South Pole. This is where the Artemis missions have their sights set. Currently, the evidence suggests that water came from the past and present comets and micrometeorites.
Strategically, NASA also highlights that Artemis is meant to inspire new generations of explorers and build global partnerships in space. If there’s one lesson we’ve learned from doing hard things in space is that you need the collaboration of the best and smartest people in the world. Even with all of our differences, space has a way of bringing the best out of humans working together on a common goal.
What are we hoping we’ll learn from this?
It’s been more than 50 years since we were on the Moon, and there is a backlog of questions to study and answer.
Here is a list view of what we are aiming to learn on the Artemis II mission:
- How does deep spaceflight affect the human body? Artemis II astronauts will have their own “Fitbit” to monitor health and wellness signals
- How does increased radiation and microgravity impact the human body?
- How does your immune system behave and react in deep space?
- What other details of the far side of the Moon did we miss geologically?
Furthermore, Artemis II will test what living in deep space means for future astronauts. It will give us real-world experience on working with navigation, communications, and other deep-space systems in a crewed setting. Artemis II is a milestone in one sense, but really, it’s much more than that; it’s a turning point for human spaceflight to help us validate systems needed for deep space travel.
What happened to going to Mars?
Sending humans to Mars has been a dream for many decades, but going there is an order of magnitude greater than going to the Moon. If we’re going to do it right, then we’ll take the same iterative process of Apollo, with many milestones to get to Mars. How did the excitement of going to Mars drum up?
Well, in 2016, Elon Musk announced he would get humans to Mars by 2025. Elon was the golden boy back then and had a lot less controversy than today. This is important to underscore because the effect of the fans of Elon and SpaceX helps considerably around the pressures to go to Mars and the discussions that take place in the media. Tons of private companies started to jump on this bandwagon as well. One of them called Mars One, which, to no one’s surprise, ended up closing shop only a handful of years later.
Obama also announced plans to get humans to Mars by 2030. Compounding the excitement, but a healthy dose of skepticism.
The Artemis program was to launch in late 2016, but went through a 6-year delay and was launched in 2022. Since then, there’s been a push by Trump to get humans on the Moon by 2028. That already seems like a risky deadline considering all the technical problems and delays, and how rusty we are at travelling further than lower Earth orbit. However, don’t underestimate NASA. There’s a reason that name comes with a certain authority of doing the impossible.
First, prove Artemis can get humans safely to the Moon and live there confidently. Many trips to the Moon will only sharpen our skills and rigor on what it’ll take to get humans to Mars and back safely. NASA explains that human missions to Mars remain a goal, but they depend on experience gained from lunar operations and partnerships.
What’s next?
After Artemis II, the excitement continues. Each mission is more audacious than the previous one, and getting us all the way into the 2030s+.
Next up is Artemis III! This is planned to put astronauts on the lunar surface near the south pole with advanced systems not tested on Artemis II. This will be a major one, considering we will see humans land on the Moon again, symbolizing that human exploration is ready for the frontier and more.
NASA’s Chief Administrator, Jared Isaacman (a self-made billionaire who famously led a crewed mission on SpaceX Dragon to the ISS), is updating the mission plan by adding another mission between Artemis II and III. His take is that Apollo launched rockets every few months and sometimes as little as 8-9 weeks. That, in turn, gave you more learning and helps reduce risk for the bigger missions.
Artemis III still has criticisms of how NASA is proposing to land on the Moon, which is a different method from Apollo. Youtuber SmarterEveryDay has a great presentation he did for NASA and decision makers for Artemis. It’s an hour long, but it does a great job of being entertaining as well as making thought-provoking points. NASA also contracted SpaceX and Blue Origin to build a lunar lander, but so far, we haven’t seen anything yet from either company. I would suspect 2028 would be delayed based on the fact that we haven’t heard of any testing of the landers yet. We’ll see!
After Artemis III, we’re doing something never done before as Artemis IV kicks it up a notch. The goal is for astronauts to live on the Moon and build the Lunar Gateway. It’s one thing to live aboard the ISS, and it’s another to be on the Moon and build a complex structure. This will test us in every way. Thus far, this mission is still a pipe dream in a sense, and plans are still being worked on. This mission would be around 2030 as a general target. Which only be after Artemis IV that we’ll start to see the path of Mars come to fruition.
If you want to dig further into anything I’ve discussed, here are some resources I used to write this article.
Resources:
- NASA Artemis II Mission – https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/
- CSA Artemis II Mission – https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/missions/artemis-ii/mission.asp