If we’re lucky, humanity will once again witness humans walking on the Moon.
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In 2024, NASA plans to land the first astronauts on the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
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More crewed missions to the Moon means we can bring home more samples to learn about the Moon’s — and even Earth’s — history.
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The mission will allow us to improve on space travel, learn how to live off-world, and understand even more intimately the origins and evolution of our planetary system.
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And missions to the Moon will help us prepare for future missions to Mars.
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Here are the 6 ways NASA's Artemis III can help us understand the Solar System — and universe.
1
Studying the Moon can help us understand how planetary bodies like planets, moons, and asteroids form and evolve over time.
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NASA
2. The Moon’s poles are mysterious places, and might even contain water in permanently shadowed regions. This water could support future astronauts or become fuel for rockets.
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3. With lunar samples, we can study how impacts on Earth and the Moon have altered their relationship over time.
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4. With instruments on the surface, we can study how the Sun affects the Moon’s environment.
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5. The Moon also offers a base from which to study the wider universe. Earth-based telescopes are obscured by clouds, bad weather, even the atmosphere itself. The view would be much clearer from the Moon.
6
Scientists can also learn how humans may best and most safely explore further destinations, including Mars.
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NASA
There may be even more experiments on the lunar surface that NASA hasn’t determined yet.