Almost 54 years since the last manned mission left the lunar surface, three Americans and one Canadian are now en route to the Moon’s vicinity aboard Artemis II, the first crewed journey beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The long-dormant dream of establishing a permanent base on the Moon draws one step closer.
Even the very youngest viewers who recall watching Neil Armstrong take his historic first step on July 20th, 1969 are now into their 60s. The extraordinary burst of exploratory energy initiated by US president John F Kennedy petered out as political will faltered and technological innovation turned towards computing and digital communication. Space travel became once more a subject for speculative fiction and movies rather than a potential reality.
It has returned to the agenda for reasons not dissimilar to those that spurred Kennedy. His promise that the US would land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth before the decade was out was itself a response to American shock at being beaten by the Soviet Union in the race to orbit the Earth. The prime motivator then was cold war rivalry; the new one now is the challenge posed by a new hegemonic competitor, China.
Both the US and China have plans to establish lunar bases within the next few years. Nasa aims to put humans back on the surface by 2028. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are vying for the landing vessel contract via SpaceX and Blue Origin respectively. A Chinese military-civilian joint venture, meanwhile, is pursuing a twin-track approach of manned and robotic missions.
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Why the revived enthusiasm? The lunar south pole may hold significant deposits of water ice convertible into rocket fuel and drinking water. The Moon also harbours helium-3, a potential fusion fuel, alongside rare earth minerals of growing strategic value. For both Washington and Beijing, it is not an end in itself but a staging post on the road to Mars. And whoever establishes a presence there first will have set the terms for everything that follows.
