Fifty-four years ago, on July 20, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the Moon’s surface. More than half a century later, the story of the first lunar landing still resonates with a feel of awe. The excitement that Apollo 11 had stirred has not waned. Till date, the ‘moonwalk’ remains as the most incredible achievement of science and humanity.
From the astronauts preparing for their mission to the rocket launching to those first bootprints on the moon’s surface—Apollo 11 had opened a new chapter in space exploration. The space age was at an infancy at the time of the first moon landing.
When President John F. Kennedy announced in 1961 that Americans would walk on the moon by the decade's end, very little was known about the moon’s surface. There was no knowledge on rocket science, no clue on spacecrafts.
More than 400,000 people worked hard to make the historic Apollo 11 mission happen. And Apollo 11 happened—setting forth a new race to conquer the terrain beyond the realms of the Earth. The moon landing has inspired and will continue to inspire innovation in science and technology.
NASA did not return again to the moon until the 1990s, with the Clementine orbiter — sponsored jointly with the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization — and the Lunar Prospector orbiter.
Apollo to Artemis
The race to send people to the moon has spiralled in the recent years after decades of a lull. The moon, with its trove of natural resources has become the top choice for space explorations. The countries see these lunar habitats as a stop gap destination for future manned missions to other planets like Mars.
The recent lunar kick comes amidst a larger political and economic effort to showcase an acumen and dexterity to control the planets.
The last NASA crewed landing was in 1972. Humans have not forayed more than a few hundred miles off the planet since the return of Apollo 17 in 1972. The erstwhile Soviet Union did send a few robotic spacecrafts after 1972 but soon lost interest in lunar exploration, only to be renewed after the United States re-ignited it’s moon dreams.
A new NASA mission called Artemis I — Artemis being Apollo’s twin sister, in Greek mythology — had rocketed off to the moon in November. 2022. It orbited without landing and nosedived in the Pacific on Dec. 11. This marked a major milestone in the ambitious plans of the United States to return humans to the moon. It was a small step towards mapping a sustainable presence on the moon and chart a platform for space economy.
Artemis 2 that is planned for 2024-2025 will carry four Artemis astronauts and the ten day mission will complete a lunar flyby without landing and return to the Earth. NASA had announced the names of the 4 astronauts in April this year.
And finally Artemis 3 will witness the crew including the first woman step onto the lunar surface. They will land on the moon’s south polar region and will remain on lunar surface for around a week. There is still no confirmation on when this will happen but speculations are that this should happen around 2028.
Moon Market
Another important player in the lunar race, China is giving a final shape to land its astronauts on the surface of the moon by the end of the decade. China plans to send two rockets to the moon by 2030, one carrying the spacecraft that will land on the surface and the other transporting the astronauts.
Both the rockets will enter the moon's orbit and after a successful docking the astronauts will enter the lunar lander to descend onto the moon's surface,
In 2013, China had successfully landed a rover on the moon, becoming the third country to do so. In 2020, it became the third country to successfully collect rock samples from the moon.
The US and China are not the only spacefaring nations with ambitious plans for lunar missions. After India’s Chandrayaan 3, Russia is poised to launch its lunar mission to the south pole next month.
Luna-25 has made use of the latest achievements in the field of space instrumentation and the main task of the mission is to develop technologies for a soft landing in the circumpolar region and carry out contact studies of the south pole of the moon. This Russian moon mission continues the series of the former Soviet Union's lunar exploration activities that ended back in 1976 when Luna-24 successfully delivered about 170 grams of lunar soil to Earth.
Private players have also joined the race aggressively. Some have failed, the most recent being that in Japan.
The HAKUTO-R mission was designed by the Japanese company ispace and launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in December 2022. It however, failed to land on April 25 this year. The spacecraft, carrying a rover from the United Arab Emirates was the first private venture to attempt to land on lunar soil.
Texas-based Intuitive Machines is also planning to launch its lunar mission IM-1 in the third quarter of 2023. The company has named its lander Nova-C which will lift off aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. Intuitive Machines' IM-1 is expected to touch down at a south pole crater called Malapert A, with five NASA science experiments on board.
Pennsylvania-based Astrobotic is targeting the launch of its Peregrine Mission One in late 2023 with 14 NASA payloads to the lunar surface.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has also announced the launch of the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon(SLIM) also known as the ‘Moon Sniper’ on August 26.
But before that, India’s indigenously built Chandrayaan 3 would have, by all possibilities landed on the lunar terrain. The goal of SLIM is to place a surface module and a tiny vehicle near the Moon's equator, in the vicinity of the Mare Nectaris crater.
South Korea is the latest country with a small but ambitious space program to set out on a beyond low-Earth orbit. Earlier this year South Korea’s first lunar probe returned some striking images of Earth and the moon. Korea plans to make a lunar landing by 2030
Challenges & Gains
Experts have already cited the challenges these astronauts will face as compared to the Apollo missions which landed on the relatively flat terrains of the equatorial regions. The south pole of the moon besides having several craters remains in almost a shadow for most of the time. A spacewalk on a lunar surface that can extend to a few hours can be challenging because of extreme temperatures and near absence of sunlight.
The south pole has an abundance of water and ice. The water in this region could be used to sustain future manned explorations deeper into space in the form of rocket fuel and even a source of water for the landing astronauts. The moon can be a ‘transit station’ to other planets like Mars and the water can be used for sustenance. The helium 3 deposits could assist in powering the fusion reactors. The lunar surface is also well suited for various telescopes as it is shielded from the Earth’s noise.
There is a lot of debate on the lunar explorations, given the incredible cost and technological hurdles on the way. Some question the justification for spending so much money on these missions considering the fact that the world is grappling with issues of climate change, poverty and hunger.
But despite all the challenges and debate, the story that started on July 20, 1969 is ready to be scripted again. This time it will not just be for national pride or hoisting of the national flag—it will be for something much more.
—The author, Vanita Srivastava, is an independent science and health writer. The views expressed are personal.
Read her previous articles here
(Edited by : C H Unnikrishnan)
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