Why Won’t The Artemis II Astronauts Set Foot On The Moon As They Did During The Apollo Missions, Despite The Enormous Technological Advances Of The Past 50 Years?

“Today, your cell phone has more computing power than all of NASA did in 1969, when it sent two astronauts to the Moon” for the first time.

This statement by the famous physicist and science communicator Michio Kaku can be qualified—and even refuted—depending on how we measure that “computing power.”

What is undeniable is that technology has evolved exponentially since Neil Armstrong took his “one small step for man” during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

In fact, a total of 24 NASA astronauts traveled to the Moon on the Apollo missions. However, no one has set foot on our natural satellite since 1972.

And, for now, no one will be doing that again.

Although there is much talk about how historic the Artemis II mission is—which launched this Wednesday from Florida bound for the Moon—none of the four astronauts on board will land on its surface.

For that to happen, we’ll have to wait at least until Artemis IV, scheduled for 2028.

I say “at least” because Artemis II was originally scheduled for November 2024, but it suffered several delays due to various technical issues.

During their 10-day journey aboard the Orion spacecraft, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor J. Glover, and Jeremy Hansen will orbit the Moon and perform numerous maneuvers to prepare for that future moon landing.

This will also be the purpose of the Artemis III mission, scheduled for launch next year.

So why all this testing for something the United States itself accomplished 50 years ago?

That monumental feat

It is difficult to explain the monumental feat involved in sending humans to the Moon.

Even the words “monumental” and “feat” fall short.

Perhaps the best way to convey its magnitude is the statement that Neil Armstrong is one of the few people of the 20th century who will still be remembered in the 30th century.

But even that would be downplaying the work and intellect of thousands of people who made it possible for Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin to set foot on the Moon on July 20, 1969, a date etched in the memory of everyone living at that time.

The so-called “conquest” of the Moon took place against the backdrop of the Cold War and gave the U.S. its first (and greatest) victory in the space race, which until then had been dominated by the Soviet Union.

And while the moon landing was a scientific and technological milestone, political and propaganda motives lay behind its costly funding.

“In practice, it is very difficult to convince Congress to approve such an exorbitant budget when, from a scientific standpoint, there were not enough reasons to return to the Moon,” Michael Rich, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles, explained to BBC Mundo in 2017.

To provide a point of reference during the program’s years, the U.S. government allocated nearly 5% of the federal budget to NASA. In 2026, that figure is 0.35%.

In 1972, when the program was canceled, “costs had skyrocketed and priorities had shifted,” explained Rebecca Morelle, science editor at the BBC.

Then, she added, “attention shifted to a more economical destination: low Earth orbit.” Perhaps the most famous example of this new objective is the International Space Station.

“Sustainable exploration (both in space and on Earth) requires stable political commitment, predictable funding, and a clear long-term purpose,” physicist Domenico Vicinanza wrote this week on the science website The Conversation.

“After the Apollo program, the U.S. struggled to maintain these three elements simultaneously,” he added.

The Artemis program managed to realign these elements.

Several space projects were canceled before NASA finally launched the Artemis program.

It was created in 2017 and has involved thousands of people, with an estimated cost of $93 billion to date.

In the case of Apollo, Vicinanza wrote, the “exploration model was not designed to last and was clearly not sustainable.”

Countless aspects have improved since those missions, from the astronauts’ food and waste management system to, as expected, computing power, however you measure it.

However, Artemis was able to incorporate technology developed for another crewed spaceflight program, Constellation, which was supposed to send humans to the Moon in 2020 but was canceled in 2010.

“Under the Artemis program, NASA will send astronauts on increasingly challenging missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to lay the groundwork for the first crewed missions to Mars,” the agency explains on its website.

To that end, they first plan to build a lunar space station that will orbit the Moon, as well as a base on the Moon’s surface.

Long before that, however, they must return to the Moon.

According to Morelle, the 2028 deadline is “ambitious”: “We need to select, build, and test a landing module, and there are delays with the spacesuit that future astronauts walking on the Moon will wear.”

Unlike the Apollo program, in which NASA designed and built the spacecraft entirely on its own, Artemis operates under a public-private partnership.

For now, the U.S. agency has selected two rival companies for the lander that will carry astronauts to the lunar surface: Starship from SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company, and a spacecraft designed by Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos.

Whichever company transports them, the astronauts will arrive at the Moon’s south pole.

NASA is thus seeking to get ahead of the manned mission China has planned for the same region in 2030. Hence the renewed political interest in space.

The Moon contains resources such as rare earth elements, metals, and water, and both the U.S. and China want access to the areas of greatest abundance.

The 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty stipulates that no country can own the Moon.

“You can’t own it, but you can use it,” Helen Sharman, the first British female astronaut, told the BBC this

The 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty states that no country can own the Moon.

“You can’t own it, but you can use it,” Helen Sharman, the first British female astronaut, told the BBC this week. “And once you’re there, you can stay as long as you like.”

The Dark Side

Just because there won’t be a moonwalk doesn’t mean Artemis II is like any other mission.

If everything goes according to schedule, the most exciting moment of the journey will occur this Monday when Wiseman, Koch, Glover, and Hansen become the first humans to see the far side of the Moon in person.

Space probes from China and India have already explored this mysterious “dark side,” but now they will be able to observe it and capture images for later analysis.

One of the points of interest is the geological formations, such as craters and ancient lava flows, as they could help future missions explore the region.

The fact is, this hemisphere that we never get to see from Earth looks quite different from the one we do see.

Artemis II will fly over the area at a maximum distance of 10,000 kilometers for three hours, and NASA has said it will lose contact with the spacecraft during part of the flyby.

“Although it may be hard to believe, the human eye is one of the best scientific instruments we have,” Koch said before liftoff.

In a few days, through them, we will experience this new (small) leap

“Hard as it may be to believe, the human eye is one of the best scientific instruments we have,” Koch said before takeoff.

In a few days, through them, we will experience this new (small) leap for humanity.

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