On April 1, we will experience a historic moment that will not be related to wars: the launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission to the Moon.
This will be the first manned mission to the Moon since 1972. The Orion spacecraft will carry four astronauts to a distance of 384,400 kilometers from Earth, will enter orbit around the Moon, and the four-member crew will monitor its invisible side (approximately 7,400 kilometers above its surface), testing Orion’s systems for maintenance and crew safety, thus preparing the ground for the Artemis IV mission, which is expected to land on the Moon by 2030.
In the meantime, the Artemis III mission will repeat another orbit around the Earth’s satellite. This mission was preceded by the unmanned Artemis I in 2022, which also entered orbit around the Moon.
Artemis II will carry humans to the Moon for the first time in 54 years. The crew will include American Christina Koch, the first woman who will walk on the Moon; Victor Glover, who will become the first Black American to leave Earth’s orbit and travel to the Moon; Canadian Jeremy Hansen, who will become the first non-American to do so; and Reed Wiseman, who will be the commander.
Cold War ‘prestige’
“The Moon adventure in the 1960s was a game of prestige between the United States and the Soviet Union,” explains Ioannis Daglis, professor of Space Physics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, director of the Observatory of the University of Athens and, from January 2020 to March 2025, the first president of the Hellenic Space Center – the national Greek space agency.
“But at that time the moon was considered to be a place completely useless for humanity. Now the picture we have is completely different.” In 1969, man “took a look” at the Moon, Daglis says. In 2026, he is planning to stay. This is happening for two main reasons. “One is the rich and valuable raw materials. The isotope Helium-3 is very important for future energy production through fusion. There is also water, mainly in the form of ice at the poles. The existence of water was confirmed by the Indian mission Chandrayaan-1,” he tells Kathimerini.
“Large quantities of surface ice have been identified mainly at the South Pole of the Moon, but it is estimated that there are also large quantities of underground ice at the North Pole. There will be no need to transport water (at great cost) from Earth. In fact, they estimate that it will be 90% cheaper to produce drinking water on site. And of course they can also produce oxygen from water. That is why there is increased interest from China. The Chinese were the first to land a small unmanned spacecraft on the far side of the Moon [Chang’e 4 mission, on January 3, 2019].”
The second reason for permanent settlement is that “launching from the Moon to go anywhere else (like Mars) will be much easier and much cheaper than from Earth,” the space physics professor explains. “Of course, it will take a long time for all of this to happen, sometime in the next decade at the earliest.”
The ‘far side’ is ideal
Dr Anezina Solomonidou, planetary scientist at the Hellenic Space Center, and Greek representative in the field of Human and Robotic Exploration at the European Space Agency (ESA), has closely followed the Artemis program and represents Greece in the lunar and Mars exploration committees at ESA.
“There is the impression that the Moon was abandoned after the 1970s. In reality, however, we invested in robotic missions, we sent spacecraft to the edges of the solar system. Above all, we learned from the International Space Station how humans can live outside the Earth. Now the Moon is operating as a test to understand whether we can build infrastructure beyond the protected environment of the Earth. We are mainly interested in what we call in situ resource utilization,” Solomonidou tells Kathimerini.
“From the extraction of, for example, ice, we can produce drinking water, oxygen and hydrogen. The so-called ‘dark side,’ which is actually the unseen side, offers unique conditions for scientific research, as it is protected from radio interference from the Earth.”
The diplomatic complexities of the case are interesting. “In the context of the intense international mobilization for settlement on the Moon, two competing consortia have been created,” explains Daglis. “The Artemis Accords, with the US as leader-coordinator, and the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), with China as coordinator.” In October 2020, the US and seven other states – Australia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, Canada and Luxembourg – signed the Artemis Accords, called the “Principles for Cooperation in the Civil Exploration and Use of the Moon, Mars, Comets and Asteroids for Peaceful Purposes.”
Soon after, in March 2021, China and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the construction of the ILRS. To date, 61 states have joined the Artemis Accords and 13 countries have joined the ILRS. In 2024, Turkey applied to join the ILRS, and is also an expected partner of the Artemis Accords. However, it has not yet signed. Greece signed the Artemis Accords in February 2024 in Washington, becoming the 35th country to do so.
As already mentioned, the two “thorns” of the agreements are the exploitation of lunar resources and the creation of security perimeters. What could the latter mean in practice? “It is likely that all interested parties will want to establish lunar bases as close as possible to the ‘reservoirs’ of water,” Daglis says. “How will the ‘first’ country deal with the ‘second’? Will it invoke security reasons and ask that others not land in the area? And how large will this security perimeter be? Is there a visible risk of a collision?”
“You can’t claim an area on the Moon, but you can say that you are conducting research in which no third party can intervene,” James Carpenter, lead for Moon and Mars science and Moon utilization manager, at the ESA. “If two countries conduct research in close proximity to each other, it is very likely that problems will arise due to the dust and debris that will accumulate, as well as due to contamination that may be caused and affect the research.”
Are we now talking about colonies on the Moon? Dr Solomonidou disagrees. “We need to make it clear that we are not talking about ‘colonies’ as we imagine them or as we have seen them in most sci-fi movies. We are talking about small, controlled bases with closed life support systems, energy production, and the exploitation of local resources. Not cities on the Moon. It is a testing ground to assess whether we can safely exist beyond Earth.”
The ‘attractive’ Mars
Could it be that the important topic is Mars rather than the Moon? “Mars is scientifically an extremely attractive target,” Dr Solomonidou says, “but it is also a very hostile environment. It has a thin atmosphere, intense radiation, low temperatures and enormous distances from Earth. So, yes, it is a realistic goal in the long term. But not immediately, and certainly not in terms of settlement in the foreseeable future. The Moon acts as a testing ground.”
“Indeed, astronauts will be exposed to zero gravity and cosmic radiation, which is not experienced to the same extent in low Earth orbit,” Carpenter says about Mars. “Another very important thing is the psychological factor: Those who go to Mars will not actually return to Earth. It requires enormous psychological preparation for this.”