hackadayNo, humans aren't going back to the Moon in the next two years.
Tom Nardi explores the current state of the Artemis project and the plan to get back on lunar soil.
https://hackaday.com/2026/03/04/new-artemis-plan-returns-to-apollo-playbook/
Charlie Stross
Winchell Chung ⚛🚀As Heinlein famously observed: "There will always be men in space, but they will not necessarily be speaking English..."
Michael Vilain
Dr. Juande Santander-Vela
Michael BuschCNSA has no scheduled human lunar missions yet either - and certainly none in the next few years.
Just Chang'e 7 late this year and Chang'e 8 planned for 2029.
And the CNSA human lunar landing proposed for 2030 may be pushed back depending on what happens with the Long March 10 test launches this year and next.
@michael_w_busch @hackaday @nyrath I still reckon CNSA will get boots on the Moon before NASA, let alone Elon Musk.
Isaac Ji Kuo@cstross @hackaday @nyrath I think that China's lunar exploration program only has a couple unmanned missions slated for the next two years, but they are demonstrating capabilities for a manned lunar mission.
I'm not expert enough in the Chinese space program to know how credible their plans are, but their plans at least make sense.
The USA "plans"? Sadly, they have been varying levels of clusterfudge since at least the Bush administration.
Aaron DeVriesChina is making steady progress, they have their lunar suits already, are developing the crew capsule, have been testing the lander components, and the rocket is almost ready. It's hard to pinpoint their "readiness" level, but like you said their plans make sense and are consistently rolling along, as the US keeps abusing NASA while simultaneously underfunding them.
I want both NASA and China to get back to the moon, but honestly I want China to return first. The US will cope hard about it, but losing the race that they aren't taking seriously should shake things up a bit. Might even get NASA more funding...or less funding, logic can't always be applied to the US as they seem to systemically hate doing the right thing for themselves and others...
Nick Stevens Graphics@Aaron_DeVries @cstross @hackaday @nyrath
I really like what India is doing in space, on a TINY budget.
Superb value from their Mars missions for example.
@Nick_Stevens_graphics
Absolutely, Indias space program is another that's super interesting to watch.
Absolutely, Indias space program is another that's super interesting to watch.
I think they should give a section of NASA India's budget, and tell them to do something equally impressive for the money.
@Nick_Stevens_graphics @Aaron_DeVries Isn't that what the Planetary Science Division already does? The budget is in the same ballpark, and pretty much every unmanned NASA mission you've heard of fit in there.
@Nick_Stevens_graphics @Aaron_DeVries But I think this highlights how little awareness the public has of Planetary. If people had any idea how comparatively small their budget was, and how much bleeding edge awesome stuff they've been doing with it ...
@Aaron_DeVries @cstross @hackaday @nyrath I feel like, at this point, it's a mathematical inevitability that China will put boots on the Moon first, but I'm really not sure how USAians will take that.
I mean, Amy Shira Teitel (Vintage Space on YouTube) is ... not feeling it with the NASA manned mission around the Moon. That's really saying something.
And I feel the same.
As for USAians who are NOT huge space nerds? I think they've completely checked out on this.
Artemis II: This Isn't the Apollo Future We Were Promised
John LuskUSians will decide it's a silly goal not worth striving for.
@tarheel @Aaron_DeVries @cstross @hackaday @nyrath I expect it will be a strongly partisan thing.
One of the more lamentable USA Space Program things in this millennium has been the political partisanization of manned spaceflight. Moon = Republican. Mars = Democratic.
WHY? WHY did they have to do that? It made progress almost impossible. Maybe not as much as Griffin's Stick, but maybe even more than Griffin's Stick.
So let's imagine a Democrat is President when Chinese boots press into the
@tarheel @Aaron_DeVries @cstross @hackaday @nyrath Moon. Oh surprise, surprise, the Republicans will suddenly decide they care about the Moon and blame the Democrats for the failure.
Or let's imagine a Republican is President when Chinese boots press into the Moon. Oh surprise, surprise, the Republicans will suddenly decide they care about the Moon and blame the Democrats for the failure.
And what will that accomplish? Nothing.
Because fixing these problems takes extended cooperation.
@tarheel @Aaron_DeVries @cstross @hackaday @nyrath Still. It's kinda hilarious that Elon Musk has weakly flipped from being obsessed with Mars to going like, "Actually, the Moon is better."
And the Musk/Mars fanboys are left to just sort of mope and quietly sob in the corner.
It didn't have to be this way.
60sRefugee