Going back would be fatal for NASA
Like other American institutions pursuing the betterment of humanity, NASA is now in a fight for its very existence. Acting “administrator” and former political pundit Sean Duffy is carrying out the Trump regime’s prescribed program of abandoning reality and practicality for politically motivated fantasy. In this case, it means altogether doing away with Earth science in favor of a scientifically desolate target: the Moon.
The stated rationale for going back to the Moon is: “for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers.” Each of those rings false. There are many other, higher value targets for scientific discovery throughout the solar system (Europa, Mars, and Titan for example); economic “benefits” would almost exclusively flow to billionaires like like Musk and Bezos; and “inspiration” generally comes from doing something new, of which NASA has no shortage of options.
Originally, the motivation for what became the Artemis program was sensible: rebuild our space program and then take it to new heights. Since then, Artemis has become an outlet for those who want to “beat China” and “make America great again.” Schedule slips and budget overruns haven’t stopped money from pouring into, coincidentally, red state NASA centers where the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion capsules are being developed.
Regardless of the motivations for Artemis, the correct course of action now would be to double and triple down on the efficient and reliable climate monitoring satellites NASA has developed, which do things like track polar ice cap melt and hurricane formation. If that means taking money from a program that wants to do something we’ve already done, in the name of beating China to mythical “lunar resources,” then so be it.
Anyways, someone dead set on returning to a barren desert and getting value of out of it could choose to go to Mars and pick up the incredibly promising samples cored by the Perseverance rover. Going to Mars could be our 21st century Apollo, but Trump and his enablers like Russ Vought have decided to cancel Mars Sample Return and cut the operations staff of Perseverance.
That is the theme of this rogue administration: spitting in the face of science, research, and inquiry in favor of pursuing a fantasy reality where government institutions are privatized and the “economic benefits” trickle down from billionaires to working people. We have the resources and technology now to preserve our world and to build it into an even better one. Going to the Moon, again, is simultaneously going backwards into a romanticized past, and forwards into an empty and unsustainable future.
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