“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” These words, famously uttered by Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969 was a moment that forever altered the views of what was capable of mankind. Fifty years later, NASA has taken an interest in going back to the moon again—this time with a focus on the South Pole. With the Artemis III program scheduled to launch in 2027, The Torch sat down with aerospace and astronomy enthusiasts to understand the public’s enthusiasm for the program.
Artemis III will be the first human manned mission to the moon since Apollo 17 launched on December 7, 1972. While the Apollo missions were geopolitically motivated, the Artemis programs are focused more on the scientific side of exploration; moreover, NASA’s main goals for Artemis III are to collect certain data from these experiments on the moon. While exploring increases our greater understanding about the Moon and the Solar System, there’s another idea that has surfaced from the Moon’s poles—it could foster life.
“People are researching what can be on the moon,” Astronomy Club president Janan Moradmand said. “Humans have searched for so many years [for] other forms of life on other celestial objects, and this is probably the best we can get.”
The Moon fostering life is a possibility, but it is also the key that could reveal why the Earth was created. Earth’s creation would allow scientists to investigate how Earth became habitable and how celestial bodies change over time.
“The earliest rocks and minerals found are still over a billion years younger than the Earth’s age,” Astronomy Club sponsor Carlton Colmenares said. “In contrast, our natural satellite, the Moon, has received bombardments from meteors since its formation, and it does not experience erosion. Its minerals do not experience oxidation since there is no appreciable atmosphere. We expect to build on the scant knowledge we have from rocks.”
Exploring the moon could later serve as an example of future space exploration like going to Mars. Exploring Mars would have similar goals as going to the Moon; however, exploring Mars would have a greater emphasis on finding life. Exploring Mars would expand new knowledge about the creation of Mars, how the Earth and the Red Planet are connected, and what life on Mars could look like.
“[The Astronomy Club] went to the Space Environments Complex (SEC) at NASA, and last year, the focus was Mars and we learned a lot about [the] economic benefits of traveling there,” Moradmand said. “I think in the future, seeking Mars would be very beneficial to us.”
