When Artemis III, the first group of Artemis missions finally touches the lunar surface, that moment will again be like Apollo 11… But then what?
NASA has finally released a solution to the ultracool scientific objectives for Artemis III, which includes field geography, sample collection and returns and experiments that will fly from Earth to the Moon to see how they change in the lunar environment. The science behind this work has the potential to shed more light on the evolution of the Moon and its interactions with the Sun, Earth and other celestial bodies. It could also further assess how the moon actually formed or how water and other volatile substances (easily volatile substances) landed there. While Artemis III may not be able to detect everything, it will certainly shine more light on the moon.
“What was so compelling for the scientific community on the moon was that we wanted to unite what astronauts can do on the lunar surface and how the two can reinforce each other,” said Renee Weber, co-chair of the Artemis III scientific definition team. Artemis is the chief scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which has led an official report on what the scientific priority will be for astronauts. “The team’s hard work will ensure that we can take advantage of the Artemis III mission, which will enable us to learn from the Moon as the gateway to the other solar system.”
The space agency has seven objectives that are to take lunar science to the next level. While robotic missions bring back some surprising discoveries, the inclusion of the human organ can take the inventions of those missions further. NASA’s first mission is to understand the geophysical processes that have occurred and are still occurring on the Moon. This may shed more light on events such as ancient volcanic eruptions. The goal is to explore the lunar vapor at both poles, primarily water ice, as a way of looking back in time at their appearance. The third purpose is to explain the history of the impacts between the Earth and the Moon – this may be the last word on whether the Moon was once part of our planet or a planet captured by the Earth’s gravitational pull.
Looking at the sun from a lunar perspective is an advantage to the fourth goal, which is to look back billions of years when our star was young and the solar system was in the mood. All the while things were crashing into each other. This may be related to some previous objectives, as asteroids or comets smash water or other volatile objects into the moon, causing objects to fly continuously in chaos. The fifth goal uses unique POV to observe our cosmic environment from somewhere else; Imagine flipping locations instead of the moon every night and looking at the earth.
Taking it differently, the sixth objective is to pull scientific experiments on the moon and see what happens in contrast to the results of the home planet.
Goal Six may help with the seventh goal, which is figuring out how to explore with less risk. It’s really going to take some experimentation. Because the moon dust is so abrasive, Apollo astronauts often complain about how their legs are worn under their boots and space suits, not to mention that accidental breathing gave some of them a cough like others. The moon also poses a risk to hypersensitive instruments that can accomplish some other purpose until the dust is damaged. Since the moon has no air or running water to erode particles from its soil like the earth, they are razor-sharp pieces of metal that are mixed with pieces of glass that were the product of volcanic activity or melted from asteroid collisions.
Astronauts on Artemis III or future Artemis missions can extract at the site and at least cover the lunar regolith with oxygen that can be used for both respiration and rocket fuel. Such processes may be integrated into travel to Mars and deep space travel if proven to be consistently active on the Moon. With the lunar gateway still in operation for a few more years, NASA considers the moon to be the gateway to the final frontier.
Even if that glowing orb in the night sky appears to be another world (which it really is) and strange, who knows what secrets it might hide.