Artemis Missions
Everyone knows about the Apollo missions that took place in the 60s and 70s, where America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration put a man on the moon for the first time in human history. It was a technological marvel; it would only take a modern computer to exceed the computing power needed for the Apollo rockets. Yet America has not returned to the moon since the end of the Apollo missions in 1972. You may be wondering, why hasn't America gone back yet? Well, this is for a multitude of reasons. There were many treaties that America agreed to so that one nation did not dominate space, it takes a lot of money to build and use rockets, and there was simply no need to return to the moon. But after all this time NASA has proposed a new project, with the sole purpose of returning to the moon to establish a permanent presence.
There are a couple of reasons that NASA would want to return to the moon. It could be for scientific purposes, economic purposes, and simply because it's fun. One of the less talked about reasons would be the economic reasons. Although the Moon is a barren landscape with barely any resources and useful materials, its location is where the money is at. Many people have proposed space elevators to get to space and make rockets cheaper to launch. But a better idea would be to have a waypoint on the moon. Since most rockets use up their fuel after getting out of Earth’s atmosphere, a refueling station outside of it would be – The one who is able to make the most efficient and effective refueling station on the moon would definitely be a billionaire (given the costs of refueling).
Although there is a significant economic advantage to owning a refueling station on the moon. America is not just doing it for the bag, they’re also doing it for science. NASA is known for its focus on science and exploration, heck the Apollo missions made absolutely no profit. So, NASA would be more willing to go to the moon for science rather than the money. There are multiple reasons that one might want to do science on the moon. The reduced gravity would be very useful in learning the properties of chemical substances. But a few of you readers may think, doesn't the ISS have reduced gravity. You're right, but this is caused by constant falling and because of this the ISS is very expensive. If the ISS were on the moon and not in orbit, you could simply build on top of the moon instead of having the expensive equipment on the ISS that is required to keep it and the crew functioning. With a moon base, you could send more people and it would still be less expensive than a fraction of the most expensive object that humankind has made.
Now you know why NASA would want to create a moon base. You could make some serious cheddar and save some on, instead of docking on the ISS. With the establishment of the moon base within the coming years, both scientists, eccentric entrepreneurs, and even Americans will be pleased that the human race would be advancing into the next frontier, space.
