RETURN TO THE MOON

Project Artemis is accelerating its push to put humans back on Earth's orbital dancing partner before the end of the decade

- WORDS ANDREW MAY

The Moon is the only astronomical body that, when seen with the naked eye from Earth, clearly looks like a rocky world not unlike our own planet.

For this reason, it's always played an important role in the human imagination, from fanciful romanticism to nuts-and-bolts science fiction.

People were speculating about the possibility of flying to the Moon at least as long ago as the 2nd century CE, when Lucian of Samosata wrote his misleadingly titled True History.

However, such flights only became a practical possibility with the advent of space travel in the late 1950s. This coincided with a simmering rivalry, both political and technological, between the United States and the Soviet Union - a superpower of comparable strength made up of Russia and various surrounding countries. Inevitably, the 'Space Race' of the 1960s became a key part of this rivalry. In its early years, the race was dominated by the Soviets, who achieved a whole string of firsts - including the first human to orbit the Earth and the first robotic lander to touch down on the lunar surface.

It wasn’t until December 1968 that America finally took the lead, when it sent a crew of three astronauts all the way to the Moon and back in Apollo 8. Although they didn’t land, this was a momentous achievement, and - having been a young child at the time - it was the event that sparked my lifelong interest in space. I even wrote a fan letter to the astronauts and got a pre-printed card by way of reply!

If Apollo 8 isn’t particularly well remembered today, it’s because seven months later, it was overshadowed by the most famous mission of all: Apollo 11. This saw two astronauts set foot on the Moon. This was followed by five more landings, the last few of which did valuable scientific research in the field of lunar geology. But the fact remains that Apollo - with its huge budget and super-fast timescale - was primarily driven by international politics.