The Future Of Geography by Tim Marshall

Author:Tim Marshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elliott and Thompson

NASA – with Space Force behind it – is now on its way back to the Moon. There is crossover between the military and civilian US space activity, but both sides try to keep most of it separate. When it comes to astronauts, though, there’s a limited pool of qualified candidates, and so traditionally most have come from the military and have been men. However, in 2020 the team of NASA astronauts for the Artemis mission to return to the Moon reflected the agency’s efforts to diversify candidates’ backgrounds. Of the eighteen people named, only ten were active-service military personnel, nine were women and four were people of colour. The intention is that the first woman and first nonwhite person to walk on the Moon will be American.

Skin colour and sex are not the only differences from the last time humans were there. Another difference is computing power. When Armstrong made the first step, and Cernan the last, the computers used to get them there were several million times less powerful than your smartphone is today. But perhaps the biggest difference is that this time we are going there to stay.

The astronauts will get most of the way there in the Orion spacecraft on top of the Space Launch System – the most powerful rocket NASA has built. It’s in competition with SpaceX’s Starship, and although NASA would be reluctant to give up its giant baby, the rival is designed to be reusable and therefore cheaper. The plan is to construct a Lunar Gateway Space Station near the Moon and use it as a docking station for the Orion. The Gateway is a joint venture between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Japanese and Canadian space agencies. Its modules will be delivered over several missions by SpaceX Falcon Heavy rockets. From Gateway, the astronauts can pick up the Human Landing System craft for the journey down to the Moon’s surface. The return journey reverses the process.

Gateway is key to this plan. It will be situated on a highly elliptical orbit around the Moon. This means that at times it will be relatively close to its surface, facilitating landing missions, but at certain points in the orbit it will edge closer to Earth, making it easier to pick up astronauts and supplies coming from the home planet. If the method works, it may be repeated for the plan to get humans to Mars. The idea is to decrease reliance on Earth.

Gateway will have a Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module where astronauts can live and conduct scientific experiments for up to ninety days in between visits to the Moon. HALO will also be used as a communication relay system between Earth and the Moon, and to control rover vehicles.

One of the most important experiments on board HALO will be to measure radiation levels. Once astronauts get beyond Earth’s magnetic fields, they are exposed to high-energy charged particles that can increase the risk of cancer and harm the central nervous system.

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