NASA is preparing for next Saturday the launch of the unmanned rocket of the Artemis I mission, which will explore the south pole of the moon and pave the way for the first woman and the first black man to land on the moon in 2025. But forums and networks are questioning why it took the Space Administration half a century to return to the moon after the historic Apollo 11 mission in July 1969. Some even defend the theory fake that we won’t come back because we have never been
[Todo lo que debe saber sobre la histórica misión Artemis]
American astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt undertook the last moonwalk in 1972, and questions about what prevented other manned travel are common in the Q&A forum. Quora.
Divided into three phases – Artemis I, II and III – the current mission will put technology and logistics to the test to set foot on Mars one day. One of the reasons why now and not before is competition again: China has already landed three robot missions. The space race with the former Soviet Union accelerated American plans on the moon.
“We should be concerned that they say, ‘This is our exclusion zone, stay out,'” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said this week. to The New York Times.
The lunar race has also been boosted by the rise of private companies such as billionaires Elon Musk (with the company SpaceX) and Jeff Bezos (with Blue Origin).
Among the answers of Quoraaside from the far-fetched, several agree on these reasons for the delay from NASA.
- It costs a lot, a lot of money (nearly $100 billion will have been spent on the Artemis program by 2025).
- There is no public interest or political will.
- The fear of failure (what if we fail?).
These reasons are sensible according to experts and we explain why.
1. It is very expensive
The Biden administration asked Congress for $25.9 billion for NASA by 2023. that budget includes funds for the Artemis program, moon suits, and reconnaissance missions.
[La NASA planea lanzar la misión Artemis I a la Luna el sábado, tras una primera falla en un motor]
Artemis’ resources will grow from $6.8 billion to $7.5 billion in the next fiscal year, which begins in October. detailed in March Ars Technicaportal specialized in technology.
But that hasn’t always been the case.
In 1965, NASA’s share of the federal budget reached 4%, but “over the past 40 years it has stayed below 1% and in the past 15 years it approached 0.4%,” said NASA astronaut Walter Cunningham. the first manned Apollo missionin Congressional testimony in 2015.
Cunningham stressed that it takes resources, technology and most importantly political will to get a project as ambitious as Apollo off the ground.
“In 1961, the United States was willing to risk going to the moon. It was a human risk and a technical, economic and political risk,” he said.
2. For what? there are other priorities
In 2019 a Article of the Pew Research Center revealed that Americans were considering: important to keep stepping on the moon alonebut Sending more people to space shouldn’t be a priority for NASA. Some said they shouldn’t even try.
In 1961, the United States was willing to risk going to the moon. It was a human risk, and a technical, economic and political risk.”
Walter Cunningham APOLLO 7 ASTRONAUT
Based on a 2018 survey, the center indicated that six out of 10 people polled believed NASA should focus “on monitoring the Earth’s climate system.” Four in ten said learning about space through scientific research and developing technologies that can be adapted to different uses should be a priority.
“It is too expensive and today it is useless”, wrote a user in an online discussion about manned missions to the moon. “We gathered the information we needed, why would they want to spend money and risk a breakdown if they want to go there for no reason?” “Mars is the next step,” he added.
Pew also found that half of those surveyed believe space travel will be routine by 2068, but more than half say that even if it they wouldn’t be interested to leave the earth.
3. A high political risk
The focus on space exploration has changed in every administration. So, for example, while George W. Bush wanted to return to the moon and then explore Mars, Barak Obama believed that the target was Mars, not the moon. “We’ve been there before”, claimed.
Every change of plans means millions of dollarseither when financing new projects or when canceling them.
“Why would you believe what a president said about predicting something to happen to two governments in the future?” said former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. to Insider.
In addition, the failure of a manned mission is a tragedy that no president wants to adopt.
Without the political risk, we would be on the moon right now.”
Jim Bridenstine, Former NASA Administrator
Cunningham acknowledged that it is therefore very difficult to get political support: “We have no national commitment.”
Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator under Donald Trump, said in 2019 That, “Without the political risk we would be on the moon now”.
“In fact, we would probably be on Mars,” he added.
[¿Ovnis, un portal a otra dimensión? Verificamos el origen de la espiral de luz vista en Nueva Zelanda]
Artemis, whose name is inspired by the Greek goddess of the hunt and the wild world, promises to reveal new secrets about the solar system, in addition to studying the effects of radiation on women’s bodies and taking the first astronaut to the moon. .
In an article for The Conversation site, Marie-Claire Beaulieu, a specialist in Greek mythology, says, explained why the name of the program is suggestive: Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and sister of Apollo, as the program with which we walked on the moon was called.
“More than 50 years later, Artemis will pick up where his twin left off, ushering in a more diverse era of human spaceflight.”
If you would like to receive our T Verifica articles or send us topics you are unsure about so we can verify them, please contact us via WhatsApp by clicking this link.
