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
Aaron DeVriesI 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...
Isaac Ji Kuo@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