No-body in No-Man’s Land: America’s Return to the Moon

For the first time since 1972, America has returned to the moon. On February 22, Odysseus, a fourteen-foot-tall six-legged Nova-C lander developed by Intuitive Machines, landed near the south pole of Earth’s little gray friend. It was the first spacecraft developed commercially to reach the moon and marks the beginning of a new age of space exploration. 

A brief, cursory history of exploration in, as Captain Kirk famously puts it, “the final frontier,” is as follows. From the tumultuous conclusion of World War II emerged two major world powers: the USSR, or the Soviet Union, and the United States of America. A “cold war” ensued, the two countries competing with each other over weapons, political ideologies and eventually, space. In 1957, the Soviets launched the first man-made object into Earth’s orbit. The following year, in 1958, the United States launched its own satellite and created NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. From there, the USSR and the United States sent the first people up to space, to orbit Earth and launched satellites that hit the moon. The Space Race escalated in May of 1961 when President John F. Kennedy made an ambitious declaration that the United States would have a man on the moon before the turn of the decade. The beginnings of the celebrated Apollo program were established that year. The government increased NASA’s budget by nearly 500 percent in the following years. For many Americans, this wasn’t just a remarkably keen interest in the moon, but the next phase in the glorious American expansion, note Jefferson’s “empire of liberty”. As it is widely known, Neil Armstrong’s small step was taken on July 20, 1969, eight years, one month and twenty-six days after Kennedy’s claim. America won the Space Race and continued exploration: five more missions followed, the total number of people amassing to twelve American men. By 1975, Cold War tensions thawed and spacecrafts from both countries met up en route where the commanders exchanged a “handshake in space.” 

Recently, space exploration tends to focus more on sending extremely technologically advanced probes to discover exoplanets and moons of Jupiter. Since the conclusion of the Apollo project, human space exploration has been limited to low Earth orbit and based around the International Space Station. Subsequently, many non-space-enthusiast Americans lost interest.

All will change with the Artemis, a sister to Apollo, both in Greek Mythology and NASA’s agenda. NASA’s website states, “With Artemis, we’re building on more than 50 years of exploration experience to reignite America’s passion for discovery.” There are plans to send the first woman and first person of color to the moon, as well as setting up an Artemis Base Camp, the first human settlement where astronauts can study and work. These experiments and developments, NASA hopes, will take America a giant leap forward toward going to Mars. The preparations for this massive project include space landers like Odysseus, who will assess the environment on the moon before any manned missions. 

Odysseus’s odyssey began on February 15, hitching a ride atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It spent 6 days in lunar orbit before shakily landing 190 miles away from the moon’s south pole, the southernmost location of any craft landed on the moon. Odysseus ended up tipping over and possibly losing its leg. However, it was able to send some data back to Earth before being powered down. This was a huge victory for NASA and Texas-based Intuitive Machines, especially after a failed lunar lander mission last month. The lander was powered down on February 22, sending a farewell photo. Intuitive Machines tweeted poetically: “Before its power was depleted, Odysseus completed a fitting farewell transmission. Received today, this image from February 22 showcases the crescent Earth in the backdrop, a subtle reminder of humanity’s presence in the universe. Goodnight, Odie. We hope to hear from you again.” 

Either way, Odysseus will be stuck up there, never to have a triumphant return home to Earth like his namesake did to Ithaca. But, luckily, as we know from Polyphemus’ cave, Odysseus likes cheese, so it’ll be just fine for him.