Artemis I represents the first step of a comeback: a NASA space programme that will lead to sending humans to our satellite again, after our last visit in 1972. But unlike its predecessor Apollo it is conceived within the frame of a future longer-term settlement. For these reasons its launch symbolizes the beginning of a new phase for lunar, and more broadly space, exploration. Since 1972, of course, the context has completely changed. The Moon has been enjoying a renewed interest for the past few years and, significantly, its space has been opened to multiple actors: China, India, Israel and South Korea have all launched at least one spacecraft to the Moon in the past four years. On 11 December Japan’s HAKUTO-R 1 lander, carrying a United Arab Emirates rover, was launched successfully by a Falcon 9 rocket, and next year we might have even more nations joining the lunar rush. However, only China has a specific lunar programme, the Chang’e series. The Chinese have enjoyed many successes lately, particularly with the first far-side landing (Chang’e-4) and the first sample return since the 1970s (Chang’e-5), but their human exploration plan is still in its infancy, with only indications of a possible crewed landing by 2030 and a permanently inhabited Lunar Research Station by the mid-2030s.
Artemis is thus the only clear roadmap to a crewed exploration of the Moon so far. Artemis I was the essential step to test whether the Orion spacecraft is up for the job. Its success paved the way for Artemis II, which will orbit the Moon with astronauts, possibly in mid-2024, and Artemis III (2025 at the earliest), which will finally land humans on the Moon again, including the first woman and the first person of colour. Artemis I also has room for science: it contains ten CubeSats, covering a diverse range of scientific objectives from mapping the lunar water ice or the plasma environment to technology demonstrators. At the time of writing it is not yet clear how many of them are operational.
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