“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”- Neil Armstrong
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The date July 20, 1969 is one of the cardinal dates in the history of space travel. As the lunar module, the Eagle, touched down onto the moon’s surface, millions of people down on earth tuned in on Television sets. Two astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, stepped out to do what nobody had ever even attempted to do before. Clad in bulky space suits, they walked on the moon.
Now, well over the Apollo mission’s fiftieth anniversary, beyond the hectic “Space Race” of the Cold War, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to launch another set of missions, called Artemis, into lunar orbit. However in the twenty-first century, Americans do not see landing humans on the moon as a necessity. Most are instead focusing on NASA’s asteroid deflection program, a goal that was already proven attainable by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)
The Artemis mission, focused on both landing the first woman and person of color on the moon, is set to explore a large portion of the lunar surface, and establishing the first long term human presence on the moon, which NASA believes is the next step to exploring Mars and eventually the entire solar system. NASA claims that this new exploration of the moon’s surface is for “scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers.” However, another motive for the launch, admits NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, is a new potential space race with China, who intends to land humans on the moon by 2030. Some believe that the new space race will spark a new world war, between the world’s premier superpowers, a war that could destroy civilization as we know it.
However, as aforementioned, this new project met public backlash. According to a recent poll conducted by Pew Research Center, “a nonpartisan fact tank,” that conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other research, only twelve percent of the adults asked support the Artemis mission as a top goal for NASA. Martian landings are even more unpopular, sitting at a meager eleven percent. These results are a distinct dissimilarity to a 2018 study published by Pew, which states that thirteen and eighteen percent of people said NASA should go to the Moon and Mars, respectively. In a stark contrast, sixty percent of people believed that watching out for potential collisions with asteroids, and fifty saying that monitoring climate change in a necessity.
With NASA experiencing budget cuts of late, and the looming Chinese threat, the window for the launch of the Artemis landers is closing, and as the ten-fold increase for near-earth body detection prompted NASA to create a dedicated Planetary Defense Coordination Office, many people are considering the nullification of the Artemis program. NASA is fighting for more funding from Congress to land on the moon in 2025, a goal many even within the space agency believe to be unattainable. Nonetheless, China’s China Manned Space Agency has built a space station in low earth orbit, landed a rover on Mars and on the Moon.
Space fanatics will have to wait until 2025 for a manned moon landing, but some experts believe the date might be delayed for another year. And there is the cost, a total that doubles the combined Gross Domestic Product of the Republic of Burundi, Mozambique, Malawi Madagascar, and the Federal Republic of Somalia. Despite these setbacks, the launch will most likely be accomplished by 2026, in the face of public disapproval. The controversial Artemis missions will not have to wait long. The first of four Artemis missions have been accomplished, at a cost of over four billion. The next will contain humans and is scheduled for ten days in November of 2024,
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The date July 20, 1969 is one of the cardinal dates in the history of space travel. As the lunar module, the Eagle, touched down onto the moon’s surface, millions of people down on earth tuned in on Television sets. Two astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, stepped out to do what nobody had ever even attempted to do before. Clad in bulky space suits, they walked on the moon.
Now, well over the Apollo mission’s fiftieth anniversary, beyond the hectic “Space Race” of the Cold War, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to launch another set of missions, called Artemis, into lunar orbit. However in the twenty-first century, Americans do not see landing humans on the moon as a necessity. Most are instead focusing on NASA’s asteroid deflection program, a goal that was already proven attainable by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)
The Artemis mission, focused on both landing the first woman and person of color on the moon, is set to explore a large portion of the lunar surface, and establishing the first long term human presence on the moon, which NASA believes is the next step to exploring Mars and eventually the entire solar system. NASA claims that this new exploration of the moon’s surface is for “scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers.” However, another motive for the launch, admits NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, is a new potential space race with China, who intends to land humans on the moon by 2030. Some believe that the new space race will spark a new world war, between the world’s premier superpowers, a war that could destroy civilization as we know it.
However, as aforementioned, this new project met public backlash. According to a recent poll conducted by Pew Research Center, “a nonpartisan fact tank,” that conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other research, only twelve percent of the adults asked support the Artemis mission as a top goal for NASA. Martian landings are even more unpopular, sitting at a meager eleven percent. These results are a distinct dissimilarity to a 2018 study published by Pew, which states that thirteen and eighteen percent of people said NASA should go to the Moon and Mars, respectively. In a stark contrast, sixty percent of people believed that watching out for potential collisions with asteroids, and fifty saying that monitoring climate change in a necessity.
With NASA experiencing budget cuts of late, and the looming Chinese threat, the window for the launch of the Artemis landers is closing, and as the ten-fold increase for near-earth body detection prompted NASA to create a dedicated Planetary Defense Coordination Office, many people are considering the nullification of the Artemis program. NASA is fighting for more funding from Congress to land on the moon in 2025, a goal many even within the space agency believe to be unattainable. Nonetheless, China’s China Manned Space Agency has built a space station in low earth orbit, landed a rover on Mars and on the Moon.
Space fanatics will have to wait until 2025 for a manned moon landing, but some experts believe the date might be delayed for another year. And there is the cost, a total that doubles the combined Gross Domestic Product of the Republic of Burundi, Mozambique, Malawi Madagascar, and the Federal Republic of Somalia. Despite these setbacks, the launch will most likely be accomplished by 2026, in the face of public disapproval. The controversial Artemis missions will not have to wait long. The first of four Artemis missions have been accomplished, at a cost of over four billion. The next will contain humans and is scheduled for ten days in November of 2024,
