What makes Artemis II mission stand out from other space explorations

NASA’s Artemis II has officially launched as is on its way to take the next step in humanity’s journey to the moon. Besides being the first Artemis mission that is crewed with human astronauts, it marks the first time that humans are returning to the moon in any capacity in over 50 years. The moon mission is making global headlines not only for the beautiful pictures of the “Blue Planet” it relays back to the earth but for a multitude of factors.

It would be an understatement to merely state that the mission will have huge implications for the future of space exploration, regardless of its destination. The science-focused Phys.Org has summarized several reasons that make this space launch so important and differentiate it from others.

There can be no doubt that space exploration in recent decades has shifted away from the moon, with curious and ambitious eyes fixated on planet Mars. However, humankind did not stop sending missions to the moon, but all of them in recent years have been uncrewed.

Ever since the first human-manned moon mission in 1968, there have only been 24 astronauts who travelled into “deep” space, which refers to the region beyond Earth’s immediate atmosphere and cislunar space. This area starts once a rocket has travelled around 2 million kilometres from our planet. Humanity’s very first crewed mission into space, which was conducted by the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin onboard the Vostok 1, is hence not included in this number.

Social achievements

Until now, all of those crewed missions were conducted within NASA’s Apollo series, which took place from 1968 to 1972. It was during the short window that the first human mission onto the moon occurred, when American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the lunar surface.

The Artemis II mission not only continues the count of people that enter “deep” space after a long break, but will also break records thanks to the diverse composition of its four-member crew. The mission will see the first non-American astronaut to journey beyond the low Earth orbit with Jeremy Hansen, a member of the Canadian Space Agency. Mission Specialist Christina Koch will be the first woman to journey into deep space, which is of particular scientific significance as travel outside of Earth’s atmosphere exposes humans to dangerous radiation, which poses a larger risk to females.

Scientific milestones

The mission will also be of big significance for the scientific community, as the astronauts will be travelling further into space than any human-crewed mission has gone before. They are expected to see places on the moon that no human has ever seen, as the Orion spacecraft will take them around Earth’s lunar satellite. The data obtained from that flight will provide important information to hep plan for future landing spots and potential construction plans for lunar bases.

Another aspect that makes this mission stand out from others is the collaborative effort it took to get it off the ground. While the journey Is primarily a mission of the American space agency, NASA, contributions were made from multiple international agencies, such as the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center of the United Arab Emirates. Future Artemis missions will also see astronauts from those agencies onboard.

Political will

Until recently funding for space explorations was massively down in comparison to the golden ages of the 1960’s and 70’s due to a lack of political will and the end of the Cold War. The shift away from moon missions towards explorations to Mars seems to now be slowly reversing with the Artemis II mission.

By Nazrin Sadigova