Editorial | Humanity’s quest to reach the Moon and beyond

History was repeated on the evening of April 1 when Artemis II, carrying four astronauts, lifted off for a 10-day journey around the Moon – more than five decades after the first human landed on Earth’s satellite.

This is a momentous occasion for the scientific community, as the latest space sojourn of Artemis II, a collaborative effort of 55 nations who have signed the Artemis Accords, now on its trajectory to the Moon, is set to test the ability of humans to travel safely into deep space again.

According to a recent NASA technical briefing, the purpose of Artemis II is to “return humans to the Moon and build a sustainable presence as a foundation for future human exploration of Mars”. This mission is the first stage of a long-term plan that treats the Moon as a gateway.

The Artemis Accords are a set of principles governing how countries cooperate in space. The accords cover peaceful use, transparency about national space plans, interoperability of equipment, emergency assistance obligations, sharing of scientific data, and protection of historic sites like the Apollo landing areas. They also address the use of space resources, establishing that harvesting materials like water and ice should comply with international treaties and benefit humanity broadly.

Artemis II, NASA officials said, “… builds on the uncrewed test flight of 2022 and prepares the way for regular lunar missions and eventual interplanetary travel”. This is an ambitious goal, but beyond the human drive for exploration, it reflects a belief among scientists that the long-term survival of humanity cannot depend on a single planet. This may be one of the reasons why countries worldwide are investing considerable time and resources. According to Statista in 2024, global governments spent approximately US$135 billion for space programmes. And NASA will be spending US$93 billion on the Artemis programme alone.

Climate change, natural disasters, and resource pressures have, in many quarters, added to the currency of these ideas.

HUMAN MISSIONS

NASA said it is working on human missions to Mars and then, possibly, to Pluto. Scientists working on the mission say the technology needed for Mars cannot be developed safely without testing it step by step, and the Moon is the only place where that can be done properly.

Artemis II will test advanced life-support systems capable of sustaining four astronauts in deep space for up to three weeks. Those systems involve advances in water recycling, air purification, and energy efficiency – technologies that test sustaining human life in space.

Research from long-duration missions on the International Space Station has already shown that space travel produces measurable changes in bone density, muscle strength, and even vision. Artemis II extends that research into an environment far harsher than low Earth orbit.

Using cutting-edge technology, Artemis II’s mission will also examine how the human body reacts in space.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen will collect and store their saliva, don wrist monitors that track movement and sleep, and offer other essential data for NASA’s Human Research Programme and other agency science teams.

AVATAR

Further, the AVATAR (A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response) investigation will use organ-on-a-chip devices, or organ chips, to study the effects of deep space radiation and microgravity on human health. The chips will contain cells from Artemis II astronauts and fly side-by-side with crew on their journey around the Moon.

“AVATAR is NASA’s visionary tissue chip experiment that will revolutionise the very way we will do science, medicine, and human multiplanetary exploration,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Each tissue chip is a tiny sample uniquely created so that we can examine how the effects of deep space act on each human explorer before we go to ensure we pack the appropriate medical supplies tailored to each individual’s needs as we travel back to the Moon and onward to Mars.”

From Yuri Gagarin’s flight to space in 1961, mankind has persisted, and science is still trying to unravel what lies in space and what role human beings can play there.

But research from Earth and stations in space, plus manned and unmanned space flights, has already changed the way scientists understand the solar system. Having been to the Moon, human beings will not reach more distant places soon, but exploration has always moved slowly, one stage at a time.

The Artemis programme is reopening a path that was largely abandoned after the early 1970s.