Artemis: Back to the Moon and by technology forward

More than half a century ago, the Apollo space program took a giant leap for mankind. Now, thanks to Artemis, a man may in two years make a small step on the Moon. The current Artemis II test mission is after 53 years bringing a human crew closer to the Moon and once again engraving into the collective consciousness the wonder of the possibilities opened up by focused research and development.

The needs of the Apollo missions led to the development of technologies that were groundbreaking at the time and are now widely used and fully integrated into the modern economy. These include, for example, fire-resistant clothing, heat-reflective films, memory foam, and battery-powered tools. At the same time, the scale of the project enabled the mass production of semiconductors and became the main catalyst for the computer revolution and the emergence of Silicon Valley. Over the course of its 11-year lifespan, the program’s total cost amounted to only $26 billion, which, adjusted for today’s prices, amounts to $300 billion—a negligible fraction of the value it brought to the world.

While Apollo and its competitors were conducted under the full control of the superpowers, the Artemis project is a commercial partnership involving hundreds of thousands of people and thousands of companies from more than 60 countries around the world, including the Czech Republic. Although the Artemis program builds on the previous space program, its ambitions will push the boundaries of technological capabilities.

The farthest planned mission to date, Artemis V, is expected to begin preparations for the first permanent base on the Moon in just two years. The development of technologies necessary for human long-term survival on another celestial body creates space for innovations that, without such initiatives, might not emerge for a long time—or perhaps not at all. Their subsequent civilian use through spin-offs has great potential to boost both the economy and living standards worldwide.

Artemis II not only takes us back to the Moon, but also offers a glimmer of hope that cooperation toward a shared goal might bring a better future to all of manking.