The first manned mission to the Moon in more than 50 years is set to take off in the coming weeks.
Artemis Two (Artemis Two), mission of the American space agency NASA-e, could launch anytime from March to early April, depending on a number of factors, including final spacecraft checks, the position of the Moon and weather conditions.
Although the crew will not set foot on the lunar surface, NASA hopes the 10-day mission will pave the way for "a permanent presence on the Moon and sending Americans to Mars."
However, the United States (US) is not the only country that wants to land on the Moon.
Why are countries now rushing to "put their boots on" this celestial body and why is a new space race being waged?
What is the purpose of the mission?
Unlike the famous Apollo missions to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, this journey is not just about sending people to the moon and returning them to Earth, Dr Namrata Goswami, author of the book, tells the BBC. Scramble for the Skies.
It is a stepping stone towards the US goal of establishing a permanent presence on the Moon and exploiting valuable minerals, she says.
This trip is a follow-up to the unmanned Artemis One mission in 2022, which was the first test of NASA's then-new deep space exploration system.
Among other things, the Artemis Two crew will practice steering and precise positioning of the Orion spacecraft for future lunar landings.
The furthest point in deep space the spacecraft will reach will be about 7.400 kilometers beyond the far (dark) side of the Moon.
Why did it take so long to return to the Moon?
The last time humans walked on the Moon was during NASA's Apollo 17 mission in 1972, at the time Cold War.
By then, the US had already won the space race, having been the first landed astronauts on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, which the Soviet Union never did.
Since the goal had been achieved, there was little reason to continue trips to the Moon, which were extremely expensive, says Goswami.
The Apollo program from 1961 to 1972 cost $25,8 billion, which is equivalent to between $290 and $320 billion today.
However, since then, technological advances, such as reusable rockets developed by SpaceX (SpaceX) Ilona Maska i Blue Origin (Blue Origin) Jeff Bezos, have significantly reduced costs, leading to a boom in the spaceflight startup sector and an increase in the number of countries wanting to explore space.
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Today, more than 70 countries have their own national space programs.
But perhaps the biggest reason the US is once again having ambitions for the Moon is China and its growing success in that area.
China is 2019. became the first country to land its Chang'e 4 probe (Chang-e 4) to the dark side of the moon.
Goswami says the landing "woke up" the US, much like Sputnik did, referring to the first artificial satellite launched into orbit by the Soviet Union in 1957.
"They realized, 'Wow, it's not like China is just copying Russian technology,'" she adds.
Even before this Chinese achievement, US President Donald Trump had explicitly committed to returning astronauts to the Moon and to conducting further space exploration by signing the space directive in 2017 during his first term in the White House.
He said at the time that the directive would "ensure that America's space program once again leads and inspires all of humanity."
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Why is returning to the Moon important?
Although China denies that it is in a space race with the US, experts generally believe that it is already underway and that the goal is to be the first country to return to the Moon.
Most analysts believe that the countries that first establish a permanent presence on the Moon could gain control over valuable deposits, including the South Pole, where water ice has been discovered.
This resource could be used for drinking water, oxygen production, and even rocket fuel by separating oxygen and hydrogen and converting them into a liquid state, opening up the possibility of refueling in space.
Experts say this would reduce the need for expensive launches from Earth and increase the prospects for future Mars missions.
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In addition to water, other natural resources have been discovered on the Moon., including metals used in construction, such as iron, aluminum, and titanium, and new deposits are also being discovered.
A rare isotope of helium, the highly prized helium-3, fetches a whopping $20 million per kilogram on Earth and could in the future be used to power nuclear fusion reactors.
However, obtaining resources like helium-3 is extremely difficult.
Among the challenges is that the mining equipment would have to withstand temperatures on the Moon ranging from about 120 degrees Celsius during the day to about -170 degrees Celsius at night.
Therefore, mining helium-3 in the future would require huge investments, as well as technology to process huge amounts of lunar soil.
"For something to be profitable, you have to be able to extract it, sell it and make a profit in a way that makes economic sense, and that justifies the initial investment in going for that resource," says Libby Jackson, head of space at the Science Museum in the United Kingdom (UK).
"You would have to process about a metric ton of regolith, the loose layer of heterogeneous material that covers solid rock, to get just a few milligrams of helium-3."
Which country will be the first to land humans on the Moon again?
The US and China are considered the leading space powers today.
The US hopes to land astronauts on the Moon again with the Artemis III mission, with the goal of achieving this by 2027 at the earliest.
China has set a target of achieving this goal by 2030.
However, they are not the only countries with the ambition to set foot on the Moon.
India, which is rapidly advancing its own space technology, plans to send astronauts to the moon by 2040.
In August 2023, India became the fourth country, after the US, Russia and China, to landed a spacecraft on the moon, and the first to land a probe on the South Pole.
Although Russia has never officially announced this as its goal, a 2023 report by the state-run Tass news agency said Moscow planned to send cosmonauts to the Moon and establish a presence there between 2031 and 2040.
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So, who will be the first to reach the Moon?
Some experts believe that Beijing currently has an advantage, thanks to rapid technological progress and fewer difficulties than the Artemis program.
Goswami says the outcome of this new space race is "even more important than the first."
Today, there are more than 70 countries that have "space institutions and agencies and are interested in the economic potential of the Moon," she adds.
"This is a completely different game."
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