Artemis II mission to open door for $127 billion lunar economy by 2050

Artemis II lifts off to take humans to satellite vicinity after 50 years

 

The Artemis II space mission was launched from Florida, United States, on Wednesday, sending four astronauts on a historic 10-day flyby journey around the moon. 

“Flyby” is the journey of a spacecraft to record data. 

This will mark the first entry of humans beyond the low-earth orbit in more than five decades. 

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) said later in the day that it was part of a larger strategy to set up a “Moon Base”. 

The mission includes the first woman and first non-white to fly into cislunar space, the area between the earth’s orbit and the moon. 

The four astronauts are Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch from the United States; and Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency. 

The last time humans travelled beyond low-earth orbit was in December 1972 through Apollo 17. 

Nasa’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 6:35 pm on Wednesday, sending the four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft on a planned test flight around the moon and back. 

According to industry sources, this will open up the lunar economy further by 2040, and will create business opportunities for startups and private companies in countries like India. 

Based on a PwC estimate, revenues expected from lunar-surface activities between 2026 and 2050 are projected to be $93.9 billion-127 billion, scaling up sharply in the 2040s as commercial markets mature and mission frequency increases. 

The mission is designed to test the Orion crew capsule and essential life support ahead of future Artemis missions, including the planned moon landing for Artemis IV in 2028. 

“Artemis II is the start of something bigger than any one mission. It marks our return to the moon, not just to visit, but to eventually stay on our Moon Base, and lays the foundation for the next giant leaps ahead,” said Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman. 

About 49 minutes into the test flight, the SLS rocket’s upper stage fired to put Orion into an elliptical orbit around the earth. 

A second planned burn by the stage will propel Orion, which the crew named “Integrity”, into a high-earth orbit extending about 46,000 miles beyond the earth. 

After the burn, Orion will separate from the stage, flying free on its own. 

“This will be a huge boost for India, which is planning its manned mission to space soon and landing an Indian on the moon surface by 2040. This will help our startups and private players to find new markets,” said Lieutenant General (Retd) A K Bhatt, director general, Indian Space Association (ISpA). 

However, raising concerns, there were some faults with regard to the toilet of the Orion spacecraft. The Artemis II crew, working closely with mission control in Houston, was able to resolve this quickly. 

Ahead of the apogee raise burn on April 1, the Artemis II crew reported a blinking fault light, and mission-control teams assessed the data and worked with the crew to troubleshoot and resolve the issue. 

India connection 

For the first time, there will be reportedly an Indian connection to one manned moon mission. Though no Indian-owned space company is on the Artemis prime contractor list, several Indian-born scientists are likely to be part of the mission at various stages. 

They include Kavya K Manyapu from Hyderabad, who reportedly leads the development of exploration spacesuits for the Artemis programme within the Flight Operations Directorate at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. 

Based on a Nasa statement, its prime contractors — Aerojet Rocketdyne, Axiom Space, Bechtel, Blue Origin, Boeing, Amentum, Jacobs, Lockheed Martin, Maxar Space Systems, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX — currently have more than 2,700 suppliers across 47 states, contributing to the lunar spaceport at the Kennedy Space Center. 

During a planned multi-hour lunar flyby on Monday, April 6, the astronauts will take photographs and provide observations of the moon’s surface as the first people to lay eyes on some areas of the far side. 

Although the lunar far side will only be partially illuminated during the flyby, the conditions should create shadows that stretch across the surface, enhancing relief and revealing depth, ridges, slopes and crater rims that are often difficult to detect under full illumination. Crew observations and other human health scientific investigations during the mission, such as AVATAR, will inform science during future moon missions. 

Following a successful lunar flyby, the astronauts will return to the earth and splash down in the Pacific Ocean.

 

Cislunar leap

• First woman and person of colour set to enter cislunar space on historic mission
• Orion systems to be tested to support upcoming crewed moon landings
• Indian-origin scientists contribute across key areas of the Artemis programme
• Minor onboard glitch detected and resolved mid-flight by crew and ground teams