Artemis II, and the complex questions of space exploration

Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky.

This week sees humanity set off on a return journey to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years, even if the astronauts involved will only wave at the Moon from orbit rather than landing on it. The much-delayed Artemis II mission this week coincides with a significant 60^th anniversary, the launch of the Russian Luna 10 probe, which became the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon. Two years before Apollo 8 took astronauts, Luna 10 gathered data on the Moon’s magnetic field and even the nature of the rocks on its surface.

The Luna anniversary is a reminder that some of the motivation of the original Apollo missions was the military and geopolitical space race. This was a complex relationship. The Luna 10 data was shared with NASA and was helpful in its plans to land a human on the Moon and bring them back safely. Sometimes scientific data transcends politics.

Today, that motivation of political and national superiority is still there, this time in a race to the Moon with China. But Artemis has other reasons to justify its multi-billion dollar price tag.  Landing people on the Moon, with a view to the subsequent development of bases, is seen by some as having economic possibilities in the mining of minerals and new manufacturing processes. For others, it is the first step to establishing human colonies on Mars and beyond, in part to make sure that human life could survive if a catastrophic event wiped out intelligent life on Earth.

Recently I spent time with scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. As we talked, I sensed passion for the joy of scientific exploration. We also discussed some of the difficult ethical questions that arise with it, such as who gives us the right to mine resources on other planets and moons, how do we use the gift of science well for the benefit of all, and is this vast expense justified?

For those who, like me, were Christians, these questions were grounded in a sense that the universe is God’s creation. Science is given by God to explore and take delight in this creation and to be used with God’s values of justice and compassion.

But there is another question here. Sending people into space is not just expensive; it is also risky.  Why not just send robotic probes to explore, mine and manufacture? This position was argued strongly by Sir Robert Boyd, one of the founders of British space science, who as a Christian felt that the expense and risk of putting humans in space was too great.

I have sympathy with this, but I also remember how, as a six-year-old child, my inspiration in science stemmed from seeing Neil Armstrong taking his first small steps on the Moon. Inspiration often comes, in the words of President Kennedy, from achieving hard things rather than easy things. Will a fresh generation be inspired by these new steps into space?

If the curiosity which lies at the heart of science is seen by Christians as part of being made in the image of God, there is perhaps another aspect of Christian theology which comes into play. As I think about Holy Week, I see a God who communicates with humanity through incarnation, by becoming a human being. Christianity is an incarnational faith. Even if robots and remote sensing could explore the universe for us, there is something important and human about stepping on to the surface of other worlds ourselves.

The pilot of Artemis II, Victor Glover, will take a Bible as one of his personal items as he orbits the Moon. Sir Robert Boyd, even if he might not have joined the mission, would have approved. He spoke of the Bible as life’s instruction manual in the big questions of life, whether on the Earth or in the bigger canvas of the universe.