Astronauts head to the moon and back!
- Apr 7
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 9
This has been a very exciting week for space enthusiasts as for the first time since 1972, humans have been sent up to the moon!
Why are we going back to the moon?
The Artemis II mission is ushering in a new era of space exploration, one where we will soon see the first permanent base set up on the moon, and possibly even the first human travel to Mars! Rare minerals and the increasingly important issue of international law and who owns space have also recently been thrust into the media spotlight. In a time of sombre news headlines, it makes a nice change to see the excitement and wonder as four lucky astronauts make the long voyage to the moon and back. Quite the Easter holiday destination!
NASA has kept one eye on the wealth of ice and rare minerals in the lunar soil, and another on geopolitics and future of space travel, particularly given that China is targeting a moon landing by 2030. All this gives the whole situation a touch of déjà vu, an updated version of the first Cold War era Space Race over half a century ago against the Soviet Union. The Artemis II mission is one in a series of steps paving the way to a permanent lunar base, in similar fashion to the International Space Station, and future travel to Mars. This signals a new shift in space travel: towards a permanent lunar base with a sustained presence and long term infrastructure, normalising living beyond Earth.
One of the key parts of the Artemis II mission is to evaluate how the spacecraft behaves in action, and evaluating how it copes with docking on other vehicles for future space missions which will head to the moon's surface.
The next landed mission, Artemis IV currently scheduled for 2028, will land astronauts on the moon's southernmost point. A fascinating fact is this will take place a mere 117 years after humans first reach the Earth's South Pole. Within a short timeframe, humans have gone from traipsing around snow in Victorian furs to conducting experiments from space and even on the moon! A trip to the moon's south pole could yield ice and oxgyen-rich minerals, allowing lunar astronauts to source their own drinking water and air. There is even the possibility of making rocket fuel on site.
Below is a map published by NASA of the landing sites of previous missions on the moon. The most recent mission is shown on the southernmost point, over 1000 miles from the nearest Apollo site.
Some photos, say cheese!
On the 1st April 2026, Artemis II took off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, carrying the astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Hammock Koch from NASA, and Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency.
You're on camera, say cheese! The above image shows a view of Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman from one of the Orion spacecraft's four windows on 2nd April, 2026.
A view of the nearside of the Moon captured by the Artemis II crew. The moon is tidally locked, meaning we always see the same side from Earth, called the near side. Some of the far side is also visible, on the left edge, just beyond the black patch that is Orientale basin. The near side of the moon is much easier to access and observe, and is known for its lack of craters and history of volcanism. The near side features several maria, the name given to plains of lava flows into impact basins. By contrast, the far side has a thicker crust and heavily cratered highlands, as well as a lack of maria. The dark patches on this image in the centre and right side of the disk are caused by ancient lava flows. The white dot at the bottom of the disk surrounded by streaks is the Tycho crater, one of the younger craters on the Moon at 108 million years old.
And of course, the people going there in the first place! From left to right shows the astronauts Jeremy Hansen (CSA) and Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, and Victor Glover (NASA). For 10 days, they must live in space; eating, sleeping, exercising and working together in close proximity.
How are we getting to the moon, and back?
On Wednesday 1st April, the rocket carrying the Artemis II crew took off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The mission is due to return on 10th April. Orbital mechanics, a fascinating branch of maths/physics involving balancing forces in circular motion, will be key to the spacecraft's travel. The spacecraft made almost two orbits around Earth first, in a tight spiral shape, gathering momentum before changing direction to be catapulted off towards the moon like a slingshot. Artemis will not be flying directly into the moon, rather it will intercept it as it wings past on its orbital path around Earth. The spacecraft will then cruise around the moon, temporarily losing all contact with Earth for 40 minutes, before reappearing again on the other side. The setup is similar to charging into a revolving door and following it around to come out again after a near full circle back to where you started. No comment from the author as to whether she has ever had this embarrasing accident in a glamorous office building.
Below is a map of the spacecraft's trajectory for its 10 day voyage to the moon and back. As a side note, during my studies at Cambridge I was reliably informed by coursemates taking a course on planetary system dynamics and celestial mechanics that such equations are an absolute nightmare to calculate and one of the hardest areas of physics. Luckily, unlike in our university exams, scientists have access to extremely powerful computers to do such work nowadays.
What can we learn from space?
Through studying the composition of the moon, we can learn more about the history of Earth too. There are multiple theories as to how the moon formed, currently the most likely one is the Giant Impact Hypothesis, where a large, Mars-sized body called Theia hit a young Earth billions of years ago, and was subsequently vapourised in the collision along with part of Earth. The debris is then thought to have cooled and condensed to form the moon. An illustration of this process can be seen below.
As well as contributing to our knowledge of the solar system formation history, space science has revolutionised life on Earth too, driving the innovation that resulted in technology such as microchips and the satellites that carry much of our vital everyday communications.
Space Race 2.0
This Space Race 2.0 as I am calling it has some key differences to the 1960s edition. Having achieved the feat of humans on the moon, the next goal is humans on Mars. In order to do this, a permanent base on the moon would be extremely useful. Why? Because without wanting to sound flippant, Mars is very far away, and the amount of fuel needed to launch a rocket capable of travelling that distance would be enormous, and extremely heavy. Launching said rocket from the moon however simplifies things, as this would allow for a refuelling stop, and the distance would be shorter. Additionally, the moon's gravity is significantly weaker than that of Earth (about 1/6 th), meaning the less force is needed from the rocket to escape its gravity. The exact speed needed to escape an object's gravitational pull is called the 'escape velocity', and is determined by the mass (and size) of the body from which an object is trying to escape. As the Earth's mass is over 80 times larger than that of the moon, this provides a further significant advantage to launching rockets from the moon. Having minimal air resistance compared to Earth is a further bonus. Nevertheless, it is by no means a simple feat and engineers and scientists will be busily working away at how to overcome this challenge. It is set to be an exciting time in space science, and along with many others I shall be watching with great interest and enthusiasm.
At a time on Earth where conflicts and division are on the rise, this new chapter in space could bring people together in awe, capturing the public imagination just as it did so many decades ago.
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