{"text":[[{"start":8.28,"text":"The writer is a science commentator"}],[{"start":12.459999999999999,"text":"Humanity is on the cusp of going back to the future. Artemis II, a crewed Nasa mission intended to take astronauts around the Moon and which had been due to lift off after February 8, is a reboot of the legendary Apollo lunar programme of the 1960s and 1970s (Artemis is Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology)."}],[{"start":35.76,"text":"On Monday night, however, there was a hiccup: a “wet dress rehearsal”, which involves filling tanks with liquid propellant but stopping short of ignition, was halted because of a hydrogen leak. The launch has now been pushed back to March. While the new space race is often portrayed in terms of geopolitical rivalry and the rush for untapped lunar minerals, the setback reminds us how technically challenging and dangerous it is to sling people off the Earth, even to somewhere as familiar as the Moon, and bring them home safely."}],[{"start":70.94999999999999,"text":"The Moon lies about 384,000km away. Nasa’s Artemis programme is intended to return humans, stage by stage, to its dusty, rocky surface and put a space station into lunar orbit. In late 2022, the agency successfully pulled off Artemis I: an uncrewed test flight around the Moon of Nasa’s Space Launch System and Orion capsule, complete with three mannequins strapped with radiation sensors."}],[{"start":101.48999999999998,"text":"Artemis II is the next, current phase: with four real astronauts heading towards the Moon and completing a lunar orbit, including passing its far side, before returning and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean about 10 days later."}],[{"start":118.77999999999997,"text":"This is now on hold. The rehearsal also exposed issues with a pressure valve on the Orion capsule hatch and communication dropouts. Previously, former Nasa engineers had voiced concerns about the capsule heat shield, but Nasa contends the material is safe."}],[{"start":138.31999999999996,"text":"Poignantly, the current preparations for launch, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch in January 1986, when cold-stiffened components eventually gave way. Even today, cold weather can derail the best-laid launch plans. A second disaster happened in 2003, when Columbia disintegrated on re-entry, killing all seven aboard."}],[{"start":172.95999999999998,"text":"Artemis II is itself a dress rehearsal for Artemis III, the great return that the world is holding its breath for: a future crewed landing at the lunar south pole, scheduled for 2028 or after. That is if China does not get there first: it has already beaten rivals in returning samples from the far side of the Moon. China has its own space station, wants to put taikonauts on the surface by 2030 and, with Russia, establish a permanent lunar base by 2036."}],[{"start":209.78999999999996,"text":"Moonwalks, though, bring another level of jeopardy. The barely-there lunar atmosphere means visitors have no protection from the solar wind, cosmic radiation or incoming rocks. Temperatures can reach 121C in daylight but plunge to minus 133C at night. Regions in permanent shadow are colder still."}],[{"start":237.03999999999996,"text":"For all these reasons, lunar exploration does not come cheap. The Artemis programme is thought to have cost upwards of $100bn, with a $3.5bn contract for spacesuits alone. In 2024, Michael Bloomberg described Artemis as a “colossal waste of taxpayer money”. "}],[{"start":260.62999999999994,"text":"I have sympathy for that dispassionate sentiment. Uncrewed missions deliver more scientific bang for each buck."}],[{"start":269.16999999999996,"text":"But, then again, I just about belong to the Apollo generation, who came of age with space as a constant fixture of cultural life. Half a century after Apollo, we are in a new, exploitative kind of space race. China, not the Soviet Union, is now the main geopolitical rival seeking strategic supremacy and lunar resources, such as helium-3, rare on Earth and priced at a reported $20mn per kilogramme."}],[{"start":301.71999999999997,"text":"India, Russia and Japan are also shooting for the Moon. As lunar interest expands, fewer nations seem bound by the norms and treaties that treat space as a shared common. A booming private industry even has colonisation in mind."}],[{"start":318.26,"text":"In this might-is-right, finders-keepers world, the fact that the Artemis II astronauts named their capsule Integrity feels like a welcome throwback to a gentler era. The crew is also a showcase for diversity: Christina Koch, who took part in the first all-female spacewalk, will become the first woman to go around the Moon; Victor Glover, a US Navy test pilot, the first person of colour; and Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian, the first non-American."}],[{"start":351.36,"text":"As the Artemis generation shapes a new future in space, this Apollo baby hopes it is a united, peaceful one."}],[{"start":368.94,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1770247433_6598.mp3"}