Half a century later. Fifty years after having stepped on the lunar surface for the last time, the Americans begin with Artemis 1 – which finally took off on Wednesday – their great return to the only natural satellite of the Earth. Next step: the installation of the Gateway station, placed in lunar orbit, and whose launch is scheduled for 2024.
A mission that is not a step back for Man, but quite the opposite. “Finally, exploration is interesting again,” says Olivier Mousis. The astrophysicist and director of the Origins Institute hails a “renaissance” – a renaissance – after “at least several years of loss.”
The Moon, a “rehearsal” before Mars
The Moon, and more specifically its south pole, is of interest to NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the CNSA (the Chinese space administration, editor’s note) for one main reason: the presence of water ice deposits. , a valuable resource. NASA’s Viper rover, which will leave for the Moon at the end of 2024, should notably make it possible to map, drill and study the water at the South Pole.
It’s hard to know whether or not this lunar water will be drinkable for astronauts, but difficult to bring back from Earth, it could potentially split into hydrogen and oxygen. Two chemical elements that could make possible the production of space fuels on the Moon. Turn it into a “gas station” between Earth and Mars?
“We can imagine a spacecraft going through the Gateway to fill up with water or even rocket fuel before leaving for Mars,” astrophysicist Francis Rocard, who, however, remains very cautious about this hypothesis, told BFMTV.com.
“The challenge of the 2030s is the Moon,” however, Didier Schmitt, ESA director of strategy for human and robotic exploration, reminds BFMTV.com, “we want a European on the Moon before 2030.” The European Space Agency, in addition to its collaboration with the Americans for Gateway, is developing in particular a landing module (lunar lander) that will be able to help future Artemis missions to the lunar south pole.
Despite everything, Francis Rocard believes that this return to the Moon by the Americans is intended to prepare for human exploration on Mars. “This will occupy the agencies until the middle of the century, and therefore another thirty years,” says the head of the solar system exploration program at the National Center for Space Studies (Cnes).
“The interest is to survive in a hostile environment,” adds Olivier Mousis, who sees this return to lunar soil as “a repetition of the conditions that astronauts will find on other planets.”
NASA’s timeline now points to 2025 to return to the surface of the Moon, three years ahead of the original schedule. This momentum is possible in large part thanks to the arrival of private companies such as SpaceX, which have drastically reduced launch costs. And it comes at just the right time for the US space agency.
Because if Russia is, for Francis Rocard, “in decline” in terms of space missions, since then a new rival has taken its place. In fact, China has made a sensational entry into space conquest since the 2000s and has multiplied successful missions to the Moon, even going as far as placing a rover on its far side.
“The Chinese have relaunched the second space race and it will last a long time”, judge Didier Schmitt.
For Olivier Mousis, it is simply a race against time between the two great powers. “The first to reach the Moon will reach Mars,” he said. “The red planet is in the crosshairs.” China’s latest feat: having managed to land its robot “Zhurong” in 2021 on Martian soil, while revealing unpublished photos of the planet.
Of the interest of other planets and other moons
However, Olivier Mousis calls for not forgetting the robotic exploration missions “which have given us very, very good results.”
“ESA should contribute to NASA’s great mission to Uranus and Neptune, the ice giants, carrying an atmospheric reentry probe,” advocates the academic.
The goal here would be to find out more about these planets that have so far only been visited once by the Voyager 2 probe, still in operation since its launch in 1977. However, it only reached Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989. A long and voyage therefore very expensive: the new mission planned by NASA for Uranus scheduled for 2031 would cost between 4 and 10 billion dollars. But it is far from without scientific interest.
“Understanding how the solar system formed requires understanding the composition of the planets,” explains Olivier Mousis.
Another planet, closer to ours, has aroused the curiosity of space agencies: Jupiter. ESA will launch a space probe in the summer of 2023 to fly over their moons, while NASA will focus more specifically on Europa from late 2024 to study the ocean of water beneath its icy shell.
This American project, made possible by SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, already poses many challenges according to Francis Rocard, since Jupiter’s moon is “extremely radioactive.” “It is not excluded to go to moons like Europa (Jupiter’s moon, editor’s note), but we have to find ways to get there and how to resist radiation. Today that is not the case”, says Didier Schmitt.
Ambitions overcome by reality
The announced end of the international space station and the geopolitical context on Earth have also forced each agency to review their international cooperation in space. Thus, the ExoMars rover project, initially launched by ESA with the Russians, will now be done without them and their elements because of the war in Ukraine: “the divorce is pronounced”, says Didier Schmitt. A situation that will only further delay the mission to the red planet, which remains to this day the main long-term objective of space agencies.
“Beyond Mars there is no reflection, neither on NASA’s side nor on any other side, regarding manned missions,” Francis Rocard abounds for BFMTV.com. “It’s too far.”
Today the Europeans, who do not have the same exploration budget as the Americans, direct their missions “towards the places where man may one day go”, with or without the help of other agencies. “Following President Macron’s request during the Space Summit on February 16 in Toulouse, we are starting discussions on European manned flights from Kourou,” Didier Schmitt told BFMTV.com. A project carried out with a view to “non-European dependency” for future manned flights.
“There is also the idea of sending manned missions to near-Earth asteroids (editor’s note) with the prospect of exploiting resources such as water there,” recalls Francis Rocard, which would constitute a new step in space exploration, although he does not specify time is known.
Olivier Mousis conceives it: it is difficult to project yourself in the post-Mars in terms of human exploration. “I don’t work for myself but for my successors”, he comments. A look shared by Didier Schmitt that reminds us that space exploration will not stop on the red planet: “We must always leave the challenges to future generations.”
Source: BFM TV
