Last week, Artemis II lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The astronauts on board are currently circling the moon and are set to return to Earth at the conclusion of their 10-day mission. For this edition of Cosmically Curious, we sat down with John Gianforte, lead observer at the University of New Hampshire, to ask the question: If we already conquered the moon decades ago, are we simply "doing laps" now?
His answer, simply put: no.
“It's a test of new technology,” Gianforte explains. “The last mission, Apollo 17, ended in 1972, so we haven't been back to the moon in a long time. The technology developed since then is very, very different from the Saturn V rocket that first brought astronauts there.”
Among the innovations being tested are advanced propulsion systems — engines powerful enough not only to return us to the moon but to carry us even further to Mars.
According to Gianforte, reaching Mars is the ultimate goal, likely within the next 20 to 30 years. However, the sheer scale of the trip presents a massive challenge. While the moon is roughly a quarter of a million miles away, the distance to Mars is measured in tens of millions of miles.
The timeline is equally daunting. A trip to the moon takes about three days; reaching Mars will take between eight and nine months. The new technology currently being flight-tested is designed specifically to bridge that gap.
Why Mars?
This leads to the next inevitable question: Why on Earth would we want to send humans all the way to Mars?
“Mars is the most Earth-like planet in the solar system,” says Gianforte. The Curiosity and Perseverance rovers have already made significant discoveries while studying Martian soil and rocks, revealing that the planet was much more habitable in the past than it is today.
While there is still much progress to be made in understanding the Martian environment, the primary driver remains our curiosity about life. Mars offers our closest and best opportunity to discover evidence of microbial life beyond our own planet.
