Despite the serious commercial interest, there is still a vanity play attached to visiting that big hunk of green cheese in the sky.John Raoux/The Associated Press
Gus Carlson is a New York-based columnist for The Globe and Mail.
The moon, if you are old enough to remember, used to be a pretty cool place.
Singers crooned about it, poets rhapsodized on it, movie makers dramatized it and Cold War powers competed for it. Ralph Kramden, the gruff 1950s television bus driver, considered it to be the perfect place for his wife, Alice.
Now, after decades out of the spotlight in the United States, the moon is cool again. Earlier this month, the first U.S. rocket ship scheduled to land on the moon in 50 years lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
But this next-generation space race is as much about commerce as it is about politics, poetry or passion. This latest mission aboard a SpaceX ship is mainly funded by ispace of Tokyo, which will be the first private company in history to land on the moon, the traditional turf of world superpowers. On board will be technology from several global suppliers, including Canadian-developed artificial intelligence.
While the return to the moon rekindles sentimental fires in a generation for whom Neil Armstrong’s 1969 moon walk was a defining moment, the practical questions seem obvious: Why go back, and why now? What has changed since the last human walked on the moon during the Apollo 17 mission in December, 1972? And why are people such as ispace chief executive Takeshi Hakamada so excited about what he called “an economically viable ecosystem around the moon” in announcing the mission?
A lot has changed in the past five decades, according to Stephen Clark, editor of Spaceflight Now, one of the leading authorities on space travel. One of the biggest changes, he said, is the evolving belief that colonizing the moon and Mars, once considered pure science fiction, is becoming less far-fetched. Both NASA and private business people such as SpaceX’s Elon Musk have committed to a moon-to-Mars approach.
Science is also fuelling excitement. The discovery of water-ice on the moon about 15 years ago marked a huge step forward. An essential resource, it can provide drinking water and contribute to the manufacture of breathable air and fuel.
The business model for space exploration has changed, too. Private companies such as SpaceX, which own the spaceships, have replaced the old NASA cost-plus supplier arrangement with a supplier-friendly fixed-cost approach. In simple terms, suppliers are no longer on the hook for additional costs related to changes in specifications or delays in missions as they were with NASA.
The result, not surprisingly, is that private enterprise has been able to develop, build and operate spacecraft faster and more economically than the government did. NASA has even become a customer in some cases, leasing payload space same as other clients.
And while the geopolitical noise isn’t as loud as when the U.S. and USSR squared off in the 1960s to land the first man on the moon, it is a factor in the acceleration of current programs. The West has watched closely as China’s space program has advanced, including the landing of a robotic spacecraft on the dark side of the moon in 2019.
Perhaps that’s why, after a string of U.S. presidents dating back to George H.W. Bush and running through Barack Obama’s administration eschewed a return to the moon, Donald Trump put it back on the national agenda during his term.
But it is Mr. Musk who has ratcheted up the excitement with his big idea behind SpaceX: that someday Earthlings will colonize Mars. While Mars remains the ultimate prize, Mr. Clark says the money is going to the moon right now as an important stepping stone.
Despite the serious commercial interest, there is still a vanity play attached to visiting that big hunk of green cheese in the sky.
Some time in 2023, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa plans to take a group of celebrities on a sightseeing tour around the moon. While the mission, called dearMoon, won’t land on the lunar surface, the SpaceX rocket will get close enough in orbit to allow the passengers to take selfies that will surely provide the ultimate Instagram flex.
Is lunar tourism a real benefit or a frivolous distraction in the quest for colonization? “I guess it draws attention to what’s going on,” Mr. Clark says, “and that’s a good thing.”