It perhaps says something about the public’s faith in the Artemis program when actually  launching a rocket is considered to be an April Fool’s Day prank.

Besides setting a new record for the furthest distance from Earth and the fastest humans have ever travelled, the Artemis 2 launch paves the way for NASA’s return to the moon, slated to happen on Artemis  4 in 2028 in its recently revised schedule. 

Since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, humans had left low earth orbit, with exploration of the  rest of the solar system being left to uncrewed probes.

However, robotic missions lack the  real time human intuition of crewed missions and are constrained in how much data they can  send back.

This was illustrated by the ability of the Apollo 17 crew to see and then react by  collecting a patch of orange soil that would prove important to demonstrating that the moon  had volcanoes in its early history. 

But NASA has been very clear that its Artemis program is not just about scientific  explanation but also commercial exploitation.

The controversial Artemis Accords – signing of  which is a requirement for participation in the Artemis program – allows private companies to  engage in space exploration on an autonomous, some would say wild west, basis. 

This sets it apart from the UN backed Moon Treaty which seeks a set up an international  organisation to ensure that all Nations benefit from mining deep space – not just those that  can afford to get there.

U.S opposition to the moon treaty has been based on its experience  of the UN convention of the law of the sea, which established a similar regime for deep sea  mining.  

A third reason is competition with China.

America believes the getting to the moon first will  help you to establish international norms that will favour ‘the international community’ (in other words, America).

China and the US are in agreement that resources can be mined for  in-situ resource utilisation (to support space exploration), but China has not said that it  supports mining space to bring materials back to earth on a commercial basis.  

Getting to the moon first in the 21st century will come with as much prestige as getting to it  first in the 20th century – perhaps more so.

While America has emphasised that it has already been there, China would like to portray a victory for its own space program as  evidence that America is a fallen power and that this is the dawn of the Chinese century.  

But both are likely to concede that getting to the moon first will not be as helpful in  establishing lunar norms as staying there. China is already driving up plans for moonbase in  co-operation with the Russian government and other partners in the Middle East and Asia. 

Meanwhile the US’ selection of more complex landers highlights its desire for the ability to  land a substantial amount of mass on the moon. 

While it is a misunderstanding that the outsourcing of the landers to private companies makes a change for NASA, they use a novel fixed-cost contracting methodology that should  allow NASA to keep its costs down but comes with less control for the space agency. 

This, along with the landers standing development around 2 decades after the rocket and  crew capsule, may have contributed to them holding up the program.

Artemis 3 will no longer travel to the moon and will instead test docking with the two lunar lander designs.

The changes also involve scrapping the lunar gateway, which would have consisted mostly of modules from international partners such as Canada, Japan, and the European Space  Agency (ESA) – including the ESPIRIT module, which would have been partly manufactured in the UK.

The change may motivate ESA, which already works with CNSA. 

China’s great weakness has been its rocketry programme. China lacks any rocket  comparable to the SLS or falcon heavy and there’s a long way behind starship.

It intends to get to the moon with two launches of its Long March 10 rocket – which was redesigned  repeatedly to make it easier to develop – with the Long March 9 now intended as a starship competitor that will enter service sometime in the 2030s.  

The Long March 10 is being developed in stages, with the Long March 10A being a simplified version. China has bought forwards its first launch of the Long March 10A during  the Artemis mission, from autumn this year to summer. 

America remains in the lead of this lunar race, with its landing planned during Artemis 4  which will happen sometime in 2028. China intends to land by 2030, though likely in 2029 to  mark the 80th anniversary of the People’s Republic.  

However, with the American and Chinese space programs, it is often a question of the tortoise and the hare: the American program has started from a much stronger basis and it’s  better funded and more capable when it’s headed in the right direction.

However, it often struggles with moments of indecision, such as Obama’s decision to abandon a lunar man program all together and instead plan to capture a near Earth asteroid and then head on to Mars.

The Chinese program by contrast often struggles with developing its required  technologies but remains laser focused on its intended goals. 

A version of this race played out in miniature in the perspective competitions to capture samples from Mars.

A more technologically sophisticated and scientifically valuable American plan has been orbit abundant due to budget tree constraints, leaving the field clear  for China’s Tianwen-3 mission. 

Hansen probably summed up the space community’s view on Artemis 2 when he said “the fact that we launched … it just totally takes you by surprise even though you’re expecting it.” 

Image credit: moneytime.ru