05/02/2026
Following the establishment of the Artemis Accords back in 2020, and the successful Artemis I mission in 2022, NASA is now currently making its final preparations for the upcoming Artemis II mission, scheduled to launch later in spring this year. This will be the first time humans have flown to the moon since 1972 – over fifty years ago. It is strange to reflect that for children growing up now, humans stepping on the moon is as close in time as the close of WW2 was to me growing up in the nineties!
The Apollo missions of the sixties and seventies were phenomenally expensive, and pushed the boundaries of technology available at the time. Though as a return on this investment and research, the technologies developed for the Apollo program have found many and varied uses since back home on Earth. Indeed, according to the Wikipedia page for the Apollo mission, the technological advancements made during the Apollo program led to the development of over 1,800 spinoff products!
Technology has come a long way in the last half century, even if, from the outside, a rocket still looks much the same as it always has done (with even the reusable rockets of SpaceX and Blue Origins differing only in the details). Furthermore, the Artemis project itself is structured in a very different way from Apollo, with collaboration with international partners and the commercial space sector embedded in the core of the project. Indeed, the European Space Agency has been responsible for the delivery of the European Service Module, providing power and propulsion to the Orion spacecraft (the part of the rocket that is to go to the moon).
The Artemis II missions will not actually land people on the moon. Rather, the crewed Orion spacecraft will travel to the moon before looping around it and returning to Earth. It will be the farthest from Earth that people will have ever travelled. The mission is a key test of the spacecraft and technologies being relied upon to actually land humans on the moon in future missions.
One of the key new technologies being tested is an Optical Communications System that uses laser beams to communicate between the Orion spacecraft and ground stations on Earth. If successful, this would allow for much greater bandwidths to be achieved, while using less power and weight – both crucial resources in very limited supply on a space mission. Looking further ahead, such communication systems could form the basis of robust, high bandwidth communications systems that will be essential to permanent bases on the moon (as is the goal with Artemis IV), or even mars.
Should the Artemis program achieve its overarching goal, then maintaining a habitation on the moon will also require the development of many new technologies, solving problems from how to keep solar panels free from moon dust to how to feed and water the humans living on the moon. Many innovative solutions are being trialled, by both established aerospace companies as well as new start-ups. As the Apollo program changed life on Earth, speeding the development of everything from integrated circuits to cordless power tools to heart monitors, it will be fascinating to see the technological legacy that will be left behind by mankind’s latest shot for the moon.
This article is for general information only. Its content is not a statement of the law on any subject and does not constitute advice. Please contact Reddie & Grose LLP for advice before taking any action in reliance on it.
