Chapter 1: What sparked the renewed interest in returning to the moon?
Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Versus.
Ten, nine, eight, seven.
Today, we are pitting facts against frontiers. Four, three, two, one. As we tackle the moon.
And liftoff.
Chapter 2: Should we mine rare earth elements from the moon?
The crew of Artemis II now bound for the moon. Humanity's next great voyage begins.
This week, four astronauts flew around the moon, going further into space than humans ever have before. The NASA mission is called Artemis II, and they're scheduled to splash down back on Earth tomorrow.
Chapter 3: Is Helium-3 a viable reason to return to the moon?
And all over the world, people have been stunned by this journey.
Oh, my goodness! Oh, it's not just what you see and you hear as the rocket lifts off. You can actually feel the force of it through your body.
Chapter 4: How can the moon serve as a training ground for Mars missions?
It's absolutely amazing what's going on right now. And all I can say is, wow.
She is the first woman to ever see the entirety of our planet. The world is following every moment of this mission, and that includes how the astronauts are getting by with a temperamental loo.
Houston, we have a toilet burning.
Chapter 5: What is the significance of the FARSIDE telescope?
They're seeing shadows, and when you see shadows, you get to see terrain and relief, and you get to see the scale of the mountains. You can hear the excitement in their voice when they're talking about these craters. It's absolutely phenomenal.
The astronauts themselves are in awe of everything they're seeing.
Well, last night we did have our first view of the moon far side and it was just absolutely spectacular.
You can see Copernicus, Rainier Gamma. It's just everything and absolutely unbelievable. This is incredible.
Chapter 6: Is it worth the investment to return to the moon?
Kathy Moonjoy.
And while these astronauts didn't land on the moon, in just two years, NASA hopes to get people to walk on the moon for the first time in over 50 years. And when that happens, when we actually see people walking on the moon again... That is sure to send our moon joy into warp drive. Angel Abud-Madrid, who studies space exploration now, remembers that moment back in 1969 and how amazing it was.
Chapter 7: What are the potential benefits of lunar exploration for humanity?
He was eight years old living in Chihuahua, Mexico, and his dad woke him up to see it.
And I just remember very clearly my dad shaking me. Okay, come on. You got to watch this.
What do you remember from seeing on the screen?
It was a small black and white TV and it was this grainy picture. And I start watching and I see the humans stepping out. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. My dad keeps saying, this is a momentous occasion. Oh, we were talking about it the day after everybody was talking about it. And my uncle, my aunts were like, did you watch this? It was incredible.
Chapter 8: What are the implications of lunar missions for our understanding of the universe?
I mean, we made it to the moon, how far we had gone. And there in the corner was grandma saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, but don't we have enough problems here to be worrying about the moon? Why are we doing this? And that really stuck with me.
And not to be a moon killjoy here, but more than 50 years on, Grandma's still got a really good question here. Why are we doing this? Really? After all, back in 1969... what felt like this big day for humankind, was also this huge political pissing contest between the US and the Soviet Union. And around the time the US won, they slashed NASA's budget.
And for decades, no one's been that serious about going back to the moon. That was until, well, just several years ago, really. Just as the U.S. and China are getting particularly sassy with each other, here we go again. The race to the moon is back on with some new players as well.
China's lunar rover touched down last night on the far side of the moon.
India is set to head to the moon. Israel, South Korea, Japan. In the last five years or so, this has really exploded in terms of interest.
There are 73 space agencies and probably 20 more are being planned because every country is realizing maybe there's something in it for us. Like what? In a recent NASA report, they said that a big reason to go to the moon would be to keep the U.S. in the leader's position. Yeah, so they can keep on winning.
And this week, President Trump posted, quote, We are winning in space, on Earth, and everywhere in between, economically, militarily, and now beyond the stars. Nobody comes close, end quote. So is this just about winning? Today on the show, we're returning to an episode that we ran a few years ago to ask, why are we really going back to the moon?
And when you listen to politicians and bigwigs in this space talk about why we are doing this, two big things come up a lot. And that's what we're going to rove through today. One is this idea of a lunar gold rush. Some say that there are trillions of dollars of resources up there in the moon waiting to be mined. And the first country to grab them will be one step closer to global domination.
The second thing is going to Mars. People are arguing that going to the moon is crucial to getting to our ultimate destination, the red planet. But is that for real? When it comes to the moon, there's a lot of... Why are we doing this? But then there's science. Science vs the Moon is coming up just after the break. Welcome back. Today we're asking, why are we going back to the moon, really?
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