NASA is preparing to send astronauts around the Moon in the planned Artemis II mission on April 1 as a step in the strategy of ultimately bringing humans back to the Moon again after 52 years. For the U.S. this is presently a bit of ‘catch-up,” given the general neglect of a lunar program over the last few decades and the decade and more of a commitment by China and Russia to build an International Lunar Research Station on the Moon sometime in the early 2030s.
The original plans for Artemis were significantly reconfigured during the second Trump Administration with a decision to also build some form of presence on the Moon, consistent with what Trump had promised during his first administration. For Trump, it has also become a priority to get back to the Moon before Russia and China, since he mistakenly believes that the ones who get their first will be able to “set the rules” for lunar exploration. This is something of an illusion since the ‘rules of space,’ like the Outer Space Treaty, have been determined through agreement of the space-faring nations themselves. China is scheduled to conduct an orbit of the Moon in 2028, followed by a landing. And today there are many more “space-faring nations” than in 1967 when the Outer Space Treaty was signed, who will also want a role in “setting the rules.”
As a result, the efforts for Artemis have been put on speed-dial, with the intention of landing a man on the Moon before President Trump leaves office, which hopefully will not result in mistakes being made. The new Administrator, Jared Isaacman, has promised to revive the capabilities of the NASA organization, which have been hard-hit by recent budget cuts by the Trump Administration itself. Isaacman has expressed the intention of bringing the bulk of space capabilities back into the NASA organization and increasing the number of employees. The last few decades have seen much of the space infrastructure being farmed out to private companies. Isaacman has said he wants to reverse the trend, and bring back capabilities to the mother organization, which would be a positive development.
