NASA’s Artemis Program plans to send U.S. astronauts back to the Moon. It is not clear what these astronauts will do once they get there. This lack of purpose will eventually cripple and destroy the Artemis program, much like the Apollo Program before it. To fix this, Artemis must deliver practical benefits to the American public.
NASA’s goals for the Artemis Program are not specific enough:
“scientific discovery”
“economic benefits” (translation: pork barrel spending projects)
“inspiration for a new generation”
To achieve these goals, NASA will land people on the Moon, explore the surface, collaborate with commercial and international partners, and then, somehow, go on to Mars.
NASA’s Moon goals are irrelevant to the average American.
This all sounds great, on paper. But so did the Apollo Program: land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth. Once that was done, political and public support for the Moon Program evaporated because it looked like the job was done. NASA is making the same mistake today: once the first Artemis astronauts successfully return from the Moon, political and public interest will fade, higher priorities will appear, and the program will be cancelled.
Furthermore, the lunar surface is a dangerous place. The justifications described by NASA are not enough to sustain political support for the Artemis program if an astronaut is injured or killed on the Moon. While the Space Shuttle program survived one catastrophe (Challenger), it was cancelled soon after its second major disaster (Columbia). The United States is a much more risk-averse nation today than it was in the 1980s. The U.S. public will not like the costs necessary to keep astronauts alive on the Moon, and they absolutely will not tolerate an astronaut dying on the Moon.
Or would they? If the American public saw practical, concrete benefits of a Moon program they might be willing to tolerate greater risk, as well as remain interested in the effort beyond the first, flashy landings.
In other words, the Artemis Program should be sold to the American public not as a series of landing stunts, or a vague collaboration, or the prelude to some far-off Mars trip. Instead it should be sold as a sort of an infrastructure development program: an investment in technology for the immediate betterment of American society.
The Artemis Program needs to quickly develop infrastructure to improve life in the United States.
Infrastructure on the Moon will be used to more easily and cheaply sustain satellite constellations. These constellations are vital for the modern economy to function. Today, satellites are necessary to operate the global financial system, predict weather, monitor the climate, and defend against rogue-nation missile attacks. Very soon, satellites will be used to deliver high-speed internet to any point on the globe. In short, if satellite constellations go away, the modern world as we know it would cease to function.
NASA’s primary goal should be to develop a Moon base to re-fuel, maintain, and expand the satellite constellations necessary for modern civilization to operate. This Moon base would extract lunar resources to manufacture rocket fuel, assemble and launch satellites (easier from the Moon’s lower gravity), and become an industrial base supporting the critical satellite industry. Furthermore, it gives NASA a way to eventually commercialize the Moon effort - turning it from a “program” to an actual industry.
NASA’s Moon base will re-fuel, maintain, and expand the satellite constellations necessary for modern life.
This infrastructure development effort is not incompatible with the current Artemis program goals.
Science: NASA could afford even more scientific research if a commercial satellite infrastructure industry was sharing the expense of operating a Moon base.
Economic opportunity would be tenfold if the pork barrel model was replaced with a true commercialization model for the Moon.
Inspiration: the next generation will still be inspired, and having an industrial base on the Moon will accelerate progress to Mars.
To sustain the Artemis Program NASA must ask itself: what’s in it for the average politician and taxpayer? The average person - as well as the financial markets - understand the utility of satellite products like GPS navigation and weather forecasting. Linking the Moon program to supporting and expanding the satellite infrastructure that underpins modern life will improve the popularity of Artemis and, ultimately, save the program from an untimely death.