Artemis moon missions a ‘gift that keeps on giving’ for research

When the crew members of Artemis II splash down near San Diego on Friday evening, they will have travelled further from earth than any human beings before them. On their return, scientists believe the impact on their bodies and the work they have undertaken in orbit will be crucial to furthering space research.

More than 2,500 scientific studies have been published using data and samples taken from the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s – voyages that inspired a generation of engineers and scientists such as Keith Ryden, interim director of the University of Surrey Space Centre.

“It set the US up as a space and technology leader, not least in microelectronics and software and this is still evident today,” Ryden told Times Higher Education.

“Artemis is now the prelude to an entire new era of research on how to live beyond earth and manage the risks, of which there are plenty.

“Once that is done humanity will need to decide if and how it can utilise this capability – hopefully in a highly collaborative form.”

The ship’s lift-off, led by commander Reid Wiseman, was viewed by millions of people around the world. The crew members, who circled the moon, were the first to see the dark side of the planet with their own eyes.

Sara Russell, professor of planetary sciences and leader of the Planetary Materials Group at the Natural History Museum, said the data and images will be used by everyone, including artists as well as scientists, for novel tasks that the mission designers might not have thought of.

“New machine learning techniques are now being applied to Apollo mission images to learn even more about the lunar surface and how it is evolving.”

The 10-day mission, featuring three Nasa astronauts and one from the Canadian Space Agency, is part of wider plans to establish a sustained human presence on the moon. In 2028, Artemis IV aims to land astronauts near the moon’s south pole, where there is water in deep craters.

Russell said these return missions, where rocks are collected and brought back to earth, have an even more substantial legacy.

“These rocks [from Apollo] have powered entire careers and produced whole new ways of thinking about our nearest neighbour.  Artemis will surely have a similar influence on planetary sciences.”

Weighing the results from the first Artemis flight against the whole Apollo programme is like “comparing apples and elephants”, according to David Parker, visiting professor in space systems and policy at the University of Southampton.

But he said there will be opportunities for decades of research from further Artemis missions as scientists apply new examination techniques that do not yet exist.

“The primary science return from Artemis will come with the surface missions – Artemis IV onwards – and the ability to recover samples from unexplored polar regions, deploy seismometers to make a global network, and search for water ice and other volatiles.”

The Artemis mission is the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972 that humans have left low-earth orbit.

Bethany Ehlmann, director of the laboratory for atmospheric and space physics at the University of Colorado, called Artemis II a “pathfinder” mission that will allow humans to one day explore and thrive on the moon.

“When we bring samples of rocks and ices to earth, they are the gift that keeps giving new insights about the moon and solar system every time our lab instruments improve.

“They are spread around the country and world, democratising access to the moon to anyone with a good measurement idea.”

Scientists also expect there to be a significant number of engineering research papers coming out of Artemis II, evaluating the performance and behaviour of the Orion spacecraft.

Another of the main focuses of the mission has been the study of the effect of space travel on the astronauts – in particular the impact of radiation in space on the human body.

Phillip Anderson, director of the Center for Space Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, said this knowledge will be critical for exploring the moon and beyond – particularly mankind’s first human exploration of Mars.

“Artemis II is a critical advancement in human exploration of space. The scientific advancements that are being and will be made in our exploration of the moon are tremendous.”