I was just reminded that tomorrow, (or today), April 1st, NASA plans to send its first mission back to the Moon for nearly fifty years. Over a half century since 1972, the last time, according to the account, NASA landed men on the moon. Artemis II plans to send four astronauts to do a loop around the dark side of the Moon, which, if this actually happens, will be farther than Man has ever been from Earth. They won’t land, just fly by, so to speak.
No one seems to know about this mission, and the mainstream media seem mostly silent and insouciant, which is itself disconcerting. One would think that after half a century, this would be the news of the century.
There are those who doubt the moon landings, and there are certainly controversies, not least of which is why, after six apparently successful landings with the Apollo program, they’ve never been back. Not only has NASA and American never returned – no one has. Not the Russians – who were desperate to beat the Yanks in the space race, and would not have spared human life to do so – nor the Chinese, or anyone else. Unmanned rockets have been sent and crash landed. But no human has ever been to the Moon since that purported mission in 1972.
The Apollo narrative states that the astronauts – they went three at a time – took off in a multi-stage Saturn rocket, the height of a skyscraper (363 feet), which mostly contained fuel. They needed it, to overcome Earth’s gravity, and travel through that 240,000 miles of deep space to our rocky satellite. For perspective, that’s the distance of ten times around the Earth’s circumference. You could fit twenty Earths between us and the Moon.
The stages of the rocket disengaged during flight, until they were left with the lunar orbiter, which one of the astronauts piloted around the Moon at 3600 miles per hour. From this, the two others were sent down in the lunar lander, landing perfectly each time, in 1/6th the gravity of Earth. After their time on the Moon, the two then took off in the lander, and re-engaged with the orbiter, which was then flown 240,000 or so miles back to Earth. Besides the close-call of Apollo 13, there were no accidents, mishaps, injuries or deaths.
Only the Americans ever did this, six times in four years, and no one has ever replicated the feat. NASA did intend another landing in 2026 with this current Artemis program, but has delayed that to 2028, with Artemis IV.
Keep in mind the furthest we’ve been from the Earth since 1972 is about 250 miles, where the space station orbits. The Moon is 100 times farther away, moving at about 6000 miles per hour relative to the Earth, which is itself moving about 66,0000 miles per hour in its revolution around the Sun. The Orion rocket has to get there, and then get back again, and will re-enter the Earth at 25,000 miles per hour, the fastest anyone has attempted this feat. The heat will be incredible. So will be the radiation in outer space.
Will this actually work, and give some doubt to the doubters, to prove that Man can actually travel to the Moon? Do they plan to film this whole endeavour? I guess we’ll find out.
Odd that NASA chose to launch this mission not only in Holy Week (which is likely not on their agnostic agenda), but odder still, perhaps, is the choice of April 1st, which will give fodder to those who think this is one big giant joke on us all.
I hope not. Although have my reservations, I’m a science fiction fan, and would not mind seeing some of that fiction become fact, which has already happened in my brief time on earth (video phones? self-driving cars?). We shall see if this thing actually takes off. If it does, we wish them well, and happy returns. Like the hobbit, may they get there and back again.
