Source: Business Insider

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They plan to go to the moon in their SLS mega-rocket and begin building a lunar gateway. The mission will focus on the possibilities of mining resources on the moon, including water for rocket fuel and will lead to future deep space travel and lunar bases in what can be considered the new era of space exploration.

Following is the transcript of the video.

Narrator: On December 14, 1972, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt blasted off the moon and headed home.

Astronaut: We’re on our way, Houston!

Narrator: It was the last time any human stepped foot on the lunar surface. But NASA is hoping that’s about to change. This is the new era of space exploration. And it’s even more ambitious than before. In May 2019, NASA officially announced its new project, Artemis.

Dave Mosher: Artemis is NASA’s big plan to go back to the moon by 2024, to land the first woman and the next man on the surface of the moon.

Narrator: The mission was named in homage to Apollo’s twin sister, Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt and the moon. But just because it bears a similar name doesn’t make it an Apollo rerun. Where Apollo astronauts only spent hours or days on the lunar surface, Artemis astronauts will potentially spend weeks there to explore it for resources and investigate the far side of the moon, as well as to test technologies for future deep-space missions. This will give scientists a much better understanding of the solar system, its history, and how to operate in deep space. And that’s the pressing reason for this mission.

Mosher: But it’s also a dry run for going to Mars, which is much father and much harder. The journey, instead of being three days to the moon, is six to nine months. So you need to practice these deep-space operations, and you also need to practice surface operations. The moon is a great place to go for that because it’s so close.

Narrator: But even though it’s close, that doesn’t mean it’s cheap. NASA said it will need $20 billion to $30 billion for the next mission. That’s up to $6 billion annually over the next five years, and that’s on top of its current $20-billion-plus annual budget. Though, for comparison, $30 billion is only about 4% of the US’s annual military budget. Or about three of the Navy’s newest nuclear submarines. Now, a lot of Artemis’ budget will go towards building NASA’s next-generation rocket, the Space Launch System, or SLS.

Mosher: Space Launch System is this gargantuan rocket that will actually take the astronauts into orbit around Earth and a bunch of the equipment they need to go up there, too.

Narrator: Once finished, it will be the most powerful rocket ever made. But things with the SLS haven’t exactly gone to plan.

Mosher: The first rocket was supposed to launch in 2017, and it’s now 2019 and they’re not looking to launch the first one until 2021. So they’re years behind schedule, billions of dollars over budget, and they’re supposed to make one of these every year or two going forward.

Narrator: To top it off, SLS isn’t reusable, like SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. So that means after each launch, the rocket will be discarded. That’s an estimated $1.5 billion to $3 billion NASA won’t get back for every launch. And that raises the question, why doesn’t it just team up with SpaceX and use the Falcon Heavy?

Mosher: The advantages of SLS is that it’s just bigger, and that’s important if you’re trying to get big space-station modules and lunar landers out into space.

Narrator: Estimates show the Falcon Heavy could launch a payload of about 21,000 kilograms to the moon, whereas NASA says the SLS will lift more than twice that. So, yeah, size definitely matters, but it’s also about…

Mosher: Politics, jobs, and other missions. So, politics, because these people in Congress who pull the purse strings have a lot of districts where NASA centers are located. The second part, jobs, is because there are tens of thousands of people employed to build and maintain and do all the things you need to do to create Space Launch System. And the third part is that NASA is legally bound to use this rocket for some missions, including the Europa Clipper, which is supposed to go out to Jupiter and look for signs of life around one of its icy moons.

Narrator: Now, contrary to old sci-fi films, rockets don’t land on the moon. There’s a series of steps that happen first, including rocket-stage separations and reaching lunar orbit. Now, for Apollo astronauts, they flew their spacecraft into lunar orbit, undocked the lunar lander, and rode it down to the surface. Artemis has bigger plans. Like Apollo, Artemis will fly a spacecraft called Orion towards the moon. But then, instead of orbiting the moon by itself, it will dock at what NASA has dubbed the Gateway.

Mosher: The Gateway is kind of like this orbital outpost for the moon. It’s the place you go to sort of stock up, get everything you need, get your affairs in order.

Narrator: So, it will act as a living space for astronauts going to and from the moon. But it will also house an in-space laboratory and be a port for future deep-space missions, such as a trip to Mars. After two test missions to the moon’s orbit, NASA plans to start building the Gateway in 2022, but astronauts still need a way to and from the lunar surface. That’s where the lunar lander comes in. And this is one part of the mission NASA might not build.

Mosher: Its administrator has said, look, commercial space, like companies like Blue Origin and SpaceX, they’re getting better at this than we are.

Narrator: Whether NASA decides to team up or not is a mystery right now. But if anything is certain, it’s that temporary trips to and from the moon will only be the start. Ultimately, NASA wants a permanent lunar base where astronauts can live and work on the moon.

Mosher: So, after the first landing, in 2024, NASA is hoping to do one, about one a year, through 2028, set up this moon base, and then we’re really talking about something interesting, which is mining the moon for water. Water you can split into hydrogen and oxygen, which are two really important rocket fuels.

Narrator: Right now, humans are limited to how far we can travel in space by the amount of fuel in our rocket tanks at launch. But once you can make rocket fuel in space, then you can travel much farther.

Mosher: They want to set up this lunar base on the surface to mine all the water and make the Gateway this big, go-to destination for refueling and this pit stop for Mars.

Narrator: And then, if they can figure all that out?

Mosher: We’re talking about expanding the reach of the human race throughout the solar system.

Narrator: Sounds great in theory, but in reality, there’s gonna be some tension.

Mosher: The politics of the moon are going to get very weird in the coming decades if we start building permanent human bases there. China wants to go there, NASA wants to go there, SpaceX wants to go there, but international space law basically says you can’t claim any territory in space or on another planet, another body.

Narrator: That’s right, space law. In 1967, the United Nations founded the Outer Space Treaty. Ratified by 109 countries, this first treaty sets boundaries for space travel. There have been four more treaties since, but the last was signed decades ago. So, currently, space law is pretty outdated.

Mosher: The international space law has to catch up to the current times. And we haven’t done that yet.

Narrator: For example, it lacks clarity, especially with regards to mining resources. There is nothing on who would own the resources, whether they would need a license, or how to settle disputes, or even who can approve the mining in the first place. Solving these and other issues will be key to the new era of space exploration envisioned by NASA. If it happens, that is.

Mosher: There isn’t the political willpower, because of that, and we’re really pinched for dollars, with all of the domestic issues and climate change and other major priorities that are happening here on Earth. So whether or not NASA can pull this off remains to be seen.

Narrator: But even if NASA doesn’t, maybe someone else will.