There will be a remarkable anniversary in a few weeks. The last astronauts to visit the moon returned to Earth fifty years ago, leaving behind a trail of memories. The Apollo 17 crewmen traveled over 30 kilometres in their lunar rover and collected more than 100 kilogrammes of rocks for return to Earth.
On December 14th, the lunar landers came back to earth with a speech from Cernan. He promised that they would return with peace and hope.
The landers, Challenger and America, docked with the command ship, America. The astronauts held a press conference after Apollo 17 left. It wasn't a worldwide success. The networks did not have time to put us on the air. Humans turned their backs on the last moonwalkers before they got to their home planet.
The world was riveted by Apollo 11. After a number of moon missions, boredom set in. By the time the launch date arrived, the US public had forgotten about the fact that Apollo 18 and 19 were canceled. When CBS cut its drama series Medical Center to show Apollo 17's launch on 7 December, 1972, the network was bombarded with complaints while NBC broadcasted a repeat of the Johnny Carson show.
The Apollo programme ended in humiliation. Even though he was the last person to walk on the moon, Cernan was bitter at the fact that he had been rejected by the public. He told the Observer that it was a very dubious honor. It tells us how little we have done.
It is ironic that the anniversary of the Apollo 17 landing coincides with a mission that is supposed to herald the return of humans to the moon. Artemis 1 blasted an un-crewed capsule on a 25 day mission beyond the moon. The exact date when the Apollo 17 astronauts landed was 50 years ago. A follow-up mission, Artemis 2, will put a crewed capsule on course for a lunar fly-by in 2024 with Artemis 3 carrying out a crewed lunar landing the following year. Humans will return to the moon after 53 years, but given the history of delays, the interval could be longer.
The aim is to establish a crewed space station on the moon, as well as a permanent scientific outpost on the surface. A number of robotic flights will be launched by a patchwork of nations and private companies. The moon will be surveyed for signs of water, mineral deposits and other features that will help prepare for future long-term missions.
The lunar rover that will be dropped on the south pole of the moon next year is designed by the Indian and Japanese space agencies and is part of the lunar polar exploration mission. Russia is going to return to the moon after 46 years with its Luna 25 mission.
This grand return is not without controversy. We should put humans on the moon. How can the costs of lunar colonization be justified? Is it a good idea to userobots to exploit its resources? Private enterprise should send humans into space. Major differences among scientists are revealed by these questions.
US astronomer Donald Goldsmith is one of the people who think we should rely on automated devices. The cost of a single Artemis mission is $2 billion, they say. Keeping people alive in space costs a lot. In their book The End of Astronauts: Why Robots are the Future of Exploration, they state that astronauts need more maintenance thanrobots because they need air, water, food, and protection against harmful radiation.
Sending humans to the moon would be an act of inspiration according to others. We lose what it means to be human if we don't have a problem. It would be great if men and women were sent back to the moon. Goldsmith and Rees are not interested in the topic at hand. For their time, the Apollo missions were heroes. The $90 billion cost of the Artemis programme will make going back to the moon seem routine. They argue that the money should be spent on other scientific research.
Others don't agree. Professor Ian Crawford said that the legacy of the Apollo missions was immense. The two men traveled more than 30 kilometres on the moon. It takes years for robot rovers to cover the same distance.
The astronauts returned more than 100 kilogram of moon rocks. The robot craft only returned a small amount. The two of them drilled three metres into the lunar soil in order to get samples, something that has never been done before by a robot. They were there for a short time. You can see what humans can do. The Apollo programme paved the way for modern planetary science and we need to go back to the moon.
Crawford believes that the best option for science is to build a research station in the middle of the ocean. Over a short period like many polar research centers, these need not be permanently occupied. Humans are needed on the moon to maximize the scientific return. It is not likely that these bases will evolve into colonies in the near future.
Many factors will affect the rate at which the moon is opened up for human occupation and these will determine how busy the moon will be in the future. In his book, The Last Man on the Moon, Cernan describes how he stopped on the lifeless, airless surface towards the spaceship that would take him back to Earth. I scratched my daughter Tracy's initials in the lunar dust and knew they would stay there for a long time.
It's not yet known how much of the lunar surface will be marked by humans this century. Will we cover it with evidence of our arrival? Will the few marks in the soil, and the odd piece of abandoned Apollo kit, be the only evidence left to show that our species once slipped the bonds of Earth and traveled to another world?
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