Name: Why NASA Is Racing Back To The Moon
Uploaded: 2025-06-18T17:46:38.000Z
Duration: 10 min 9 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

55 years ago, humanity put the first man on the moon and now, half a century later, we're about to do it again.

But this time, it's going to be way bigger and better.

Are we actually about to start building a lunar base camp with a permanent presence on the moon?

And are humans really going the furthest we've ever gone into deep space in 2025?

The next 5 to 10 years are going to be wild.

Today's episode is sponsored by Columbia, who helped outfit the Nova C Lunar Lander with their OmniHeat Infinity fabric, made to handle the most extreme environments.

Tech that's been tested in space, but that's also available in tons of different products here on Earth.

I've always been super jealous of people in the 60s and 70s who got to experience the awe of going to space and the moon for the first time, all culminating in Neil Armstrong's famous line, That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

Sadly, ever since the final Apollo mission in 1972, there's been a hold on lunar exploration.

But in 2019, it was announced by NASA that humans would once again venture to the moon with a mission named Artemis, after the Greek goddess of the moon, Apollo's twin sister.

Not only will Artemis have humans exploring the moon for scientific discoveries and technological advancements, but it will also focus on how to live and work on another world as we prepare to Mars one day.

And the first crewed mission is currently scheduled for 2025.

I don't think we have to be jealous of the past anymore.

The program is currently seven planned and scheduled Artemis missions over the next 8 years or so, with missions 8 to 11 currently being proposed.

It was an uncrewed mission designed to test the different deep space exploration systems.

The main components are the Space Launch System, NASA's most powerful rocket ever, which will launch each mission from Earth into space, taking with it the Orion Capsule, which is designed to carry the crew beyond low Earth orbit.

The Orion Capsule is made up of a launch abort system, which separates the spacecraft from the rocket in the case of an emergency, the crew module, where astronauts will live and work, and the service module, which will fuel and propel Orion in space using solar power for and provide things like water and oxygen for the crew.

It was in November of 2022 that Orion first launched into space and did a successful flyby of the moon, returning back to Earth on December 11th, 2022.

Artemis 2, which is currently scheduled for 2025, is similar, except it will launch with a crew that will also do a flyby of the moon, setting a record for the farthest humanity will have traveled beyond the far side of the moon, around 450,000 kilometers away.

And then Artemis 3, currently scheduled for 2026, will see the first actual landing of humans onto the moon since the Apollo missions.

Two of the astronauts will be sent down for roughly a week at the South Pole of the moon, where they'll do science experiments and collect samples before rejoining their crew on Orion and heading back to Earth.

The South Pole region is significant because it's not only terrain unexplored by humans, but contains permanently shadowed regions rich in resources, including access to deposits of water ice.

But what comes next is where it starts to feel like a bit of a science fiction novel, because the South Pole is where NASA plans to establish the Artemis base camp with the goal of long-term stays by astronauts.

But before we get to that, there's a lot of really cool developments that have taken place to get to this point.

For example, when the Artemis 3 mission sends its crew to the moon, it will rendezvous with Starship HLS, a moon lander that is being developed by SpaceX to transfer astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the moon and back.

And future landers and other technology will be made by other companies as well.

Even earlier this year, NASA began working with organizations to send payloads or shipments to the moon.

For example, the NovaSea lunar landers, developed by a company called Intuitive Machines, are bringing materials to the moon on behalf of NASA.

This includes science instruments and tech designed to help with research and gathering information ahead of human arrival.

Their lunar lander, called Odysseus, became the first privately developed spacecraft to touch down on the moon and the first American spacecraft to do so in more than half a century.

Now you might be wondering why this lunar lander is outfitted with today's sponsor, Columbia, a clothing brand.

And that's because Columbia's technology was used to help it understand the elements in space.

Ironically, the Omni-Heat-Infinity material inside Columbia's clothing was originally inspired by space blankets.

And that's because they follow a similar principle.

Both the space blanket and Omni-Heat-Infinity are reflective surfaces.

And it just so happens humans emit radiant heat in the form of invisible infrared radiation.

Yes, when your body gives off heat, that's a form of radiation, but our eyes just designed to see that part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

It's the radiation coming off your body in the infrared spectrum.

The idea behind Omni-Heat-Infinity is to reflect your own body heat back at you instead of simply letting it radiate away, keeping you warmer for longer, but with a super lightweight material.

In fact, if you put your hand over an Omni-Heat-Infinity material and film it with an infrared camera, you can actually see the reflection of your hand in the fabric.

This is because the heat is literally leaving your hand, hitting the jacket, and then bouncing back outwards.

The gold dot pattern is mixed with other fabric to keep it breathable and flexible as you want moisture vapor to be able to escape so you don't get wet, all while maximizing on as much heat reflection as possible.

Of course, it's also useful for something traveling through space to be extremely lightweight where every single pound matters and can impact fuel efficiency.

Not to mention the temperatures in space can vary between minus 250 and plus 250 Fahrenheit.

So the Omni-Heat-Infinity went a long way in helping to keep the lunar lander insulated on its journey.

And it's a really cool example of companies coming together to not only explore the universe, but expand on our understanding of science and technology.

So a big thanks to Columbia for sponsoring today's video.

Now, sending landers to the moon and then putting humans there in the next few years isn't enough to tickle your fancy, perhaps I can tease you with a full moon colony?

Because the following Artemis missions will not only start to build a lunar space station known as Gateway, but will eventually start bringing materials to the surface of the moon to create a permanent presence in the 2030s.

Gateway will be the world's first space station beyond low earth orbit.

It will cycle around the moon and help land astronauts, serve as a communication hub, science laboratory, and habitation module.

Piece by piece, it will be built in space, with each subsequent Artemis mission bringing new parts of it until it's finalized.

And much like the current International Space Station orbiting earth, it will allow ships from other countries to dock and bring their own crews.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, the South Pole is a significant base camp location for multiple reasons, including the presence of water, which might have hurt some of your ears up.

Yes, while it's long been theorized there may be deposits of water on the confirmed and thought to be most plentiful in the dark craters on the lunar South Pole, which never see light.

This has been a big instigator for the new excitement around going to the moon.

The idea being that not only can water help crews survive longer, but can be mined and split into hydrogen and oxygen, which are big components of rocket propellant.

And if we can make fuel on the moon, perhaps it can be a launching pad to explore further into space.

On top of this, there's the potential to mine rare earth metals and the isotope helium three, which is rare on earth, but plentiful on the moon and can theoretically be used to help power nuclear fusion reactors.

So starting in the early 2030s, NASA will first bring a habitable mobility platform or lunar cruiser to the South Pole, which scientists can both explore and live in for up to 45 days, shortly followed by their foundational surface habitat, a larger and more permanent lunar outpost that astronauts will inhabit for months at a time.

It'll be a three story structure with an airlock system, geology lab, and other workspaces on the first floor, while the upper floors will be made of an inflatable habitat and dedicated to crew health and hygiene.

After many logistics missions, the long term goal is to slowly increase how long astronauts can stay on the surface.

Starting at six and a half days with Artemis 3, missions will eventually stretch out to year long crews that will rotate in and out, keeping a permanent presence on the moon.

Plans are even in place to 3D print structures using materials already available on the moon, like lunar regolith or moon soil, by melting it into a cement like material with an automated robot to create moon buildings.

And while the current budgeted and planned missions will only see the beginning stages of this moon base, we may soon have a lunar colony that's not only for exploration, resource extraction, and science research, but a jumping point for crewed missions to Mars and beyond.

There's so much we don't understand about having humans in space for extended periods of time and being able to survive or be self sufficient so far away.

The Artemis missions will help us get much closer than ever before to moving beyond our home into the greater universe.

Yes, these are some lofty goals for the 2030s and timelines may change based on budgets and unforeseen circumstances, but the very fact that we're about to see humans on the moon again and see the beginnings of a lunar village materialize is just unbelievable to me.

The space age feels like it's back and it will hopefully inspire a generation of humans to be more engaged and excited about science and space exploration.

I want to send another big thanks to Columbia for sponsoring today's video.

You can check the link in our description if you want to shop OmniHeat Infinity products.

They're not only supporting scientific research and space exploration, but education here on Earth, allowing channels like us to keep doing what we're doing, so we're super grateful for that.

Make sure you like the video, subscribe, and we'll see you ASAP for some more science.