2024 is coming: the year we return to the Moon!
After decades, humans will finally return to the Moon. The first manned mission is scheduled to take place in 2024, which will be a year considered a milestone in Astronomy.
Between the 50s and 60s, humanity had one goal in mind: to reach our natural satellite. The great motivation behind it, however, had relations with the geopolitical context of the Cold War. The space race has become an important point in the relations of the United States and the Soviet Union.
The first to set foot on the Moon were the Apollo 11 astronauts on July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the astronauts who did the walk while astronaut Michael Collins was responsible for piloting the Columbia module. In all, the astronauts spent about 21 hours on the Moon.
The last that humanity was on the Moon was in 1972 on the Apollo 17 mission. Since then, only probes and unmanned missions have visited the natural satellite. In 2024, 5 decades later, the Artemis 2 mission will take humanity as close to the Moon we have been since then.
Moon
The Moon is the natural satellite of the Earth being the closest astronomical object to us. On average, using spacecraft, the trip is about 3 days. In this way, it is the easiest object to reach and even use as a test for more distant trips, such as to the planet Mars.
Studying the Moon up close can provide us with answers about the Solar System and also about the Earth itself.
There are several reasons to visit the Moon ranging from space exploration to technology testing. In addition, natural resources may also be present on the Moon such as the famous Helium-3 that can serve as a clean energy base for us.
Why do we never go back to the Moon then?
Going to our natural satellite is a costly trip in many ways. It is financially costly since resources are needed from the preparation of astronauts to ships with state-of-the-art technology. It is also costly in the sense of the time required to prepare such a mission.
Because of these reasons, during the last decades, resources have been migrated to other missions and challenges that would cover more questions. Examples are telescopes launched with the objective of answering questions about the Universe such as Hubble in the 1990s and James Webb recently.
Apollo Missions
During the Cold War, the space race had a significant impact. At that time, the United States launched an ambitious program with the aim of taking humans to the Moon for the first time. Hence the Apollo missions, which were a set of 17 missions, 11 of which were manned.
The missions that landed on the Moon were 6 in total. It was expected that the Apollo missions would have 20 missions but due to cuts in resources, the missions were closed after the seventeenth in 1972.
Apollo 11: the most famous mission
Among all the Apollo missions, 11 is certainly the best known, being portrayed in books and movies. The reason is because it was the first manned mission to arrive on the Moon and is where the famous phrase "It is a small step for man, but a giant leap for humanity." was pronounced by Neil Armstrong in his first steps.
The Apollo 11 mission lasted a total of 8 days and only about 21 hours were spent on the lunar surface.
During the mission, lunar soil samples were collected and some scientific experiments were carried out. In addition, photographs were taken for the purpose of further analysis. Due to the success of this mission, 6 other missions were sent with 5 of them being successful.
The return to the moon
With technology having advanced in recent decades, NASA with international collaboration proposed the Artemis missions with the aim of returning to the Moon. The missions have a variety of objectives such as testing technologies that can take us to Mars, exploration of lunar resources, studying the possibility of building a laboratory on the Moon.
Returning to the Moon is an important step for the advancement of space exploration. Some researchers suggest that the Moon can serve as a stopping point for longer and more distant missions, such as the missions to Mars that SpaceX is working on. Now is the ideal time to return to the satellite.
Artemis Missions
The name of the mission came from Apollo's twin sister. The first Artemis mission took place in 2022 with the test of the Orion spacecraft. During the mission, which lasted 25 days, the spacecraft orbited near the Moon before returning to Earth. The mission was unmanned and is given as a success story.
In all, there are already 6 planned missions that will take place by 2030. All are scheduled to be launched from the Kennedy LC-39B platform in Florida in the United States. Other missions are already being proposed, such as Artemis 11, which aims to be a mission that lasts 1 year.
Artemis 2
Artemis 2 is the mission that will make humanity return as close as to the Moon since the 1970s. It will not be a mission that will land on the lunar surface and will serve as a test for future missions.
The mission is scheduled to take place in December 2024 if everything goes well. Recalling that the Artemis 1 mission has been postponed 2 times due to infrastructure problems in the ship. It will be the last mission before the mission that will make humans step on the Moon once again and the first time in this millennium.