Artemis astronauts should add a Zoom call for the ages to their schedule

Humans from Earth, according to the latest schedule, will walk on the moon again sometime in late 2026. While no one will be surprised if the date of the next moonwalk is moved farther into the future, it will be a world-inspiring event that will be as profound, in its way, as the very first moon landing, which took place on a summer night in 1969.

NASA has already laid out the broad outlines of what the two astronauts who land on the moon will do. They will check their spacecraft’s system, eat, sleep and refresh themselves for the week-long sojourn to come.

Then, “During their moonwalks, the astronauts will take pictures and video, survey geology, retrieve samples, and collect other data to meet specific scientific objectives.”

NASA has already chosen three instruments that the astronauts will leave behind to study the moon long term. They include:

• the Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS), which monitors moonquakes and provides insights into the moon’s crust and mantle;
• the Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora (LEAF), which will be, in effect, a lunar greenhouse that will track plant photosynthesis, growth, and systemic stress responses under the influence of space radiation and partial gravity, and
• the Lunar Dielectric Analyzer (LDA), which will assess lunar regolith’s capacity to create an electric field as well as help astronauts hunt for volatiles such as ice.

All of those things will add up to a magnificent week of scientific exploration on the moon’s surface, undertaken before the eyes of the world. 

However, the Artemis III moonwalkers should do one other thing, in keeping with the part of the Artemis mission statement that reads, “inspiration for a new generation of explorers: the Artemis Generation.” They should do something for young people, for whom the Apollo program is ancient history, who will be seeing with their own eyes people walking on the moon for the first time.

I propose that NASA and its Artemis partners create an event on the Artemis III timeline called “Ask the Artemis Astronauts” and make it available to elementary and secondary school students in all the nations that have signed the Artemis Accords.

NASA and the Artemis partners would create a contest inviting students to submit questions to the Artemis moonwalkers. An independent board would select the top 20 or so questions. On the appointed day, NASA would set up the first cislunar Zoom call, made possible by modern telecommunications. The question-and-answer session would be broadcast and livestreamed across the Earth.

The original Apollo moon landings were broadcast live, using the technology available at the time. The Apollo 11 moonwalk especially was a worldwide sensation, watched by half a billion people on a planet that contained just 3.5 billion people. President Richard Nixon placed the first Earth-to-moon telephone call to congratulate Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin for their historic accomplishment.

However, the experience of the Apollo moonwalks, from the point of view of the people on Earth, was a passive one. People watched and were, in the main, enthralled. But, aside from the people at Mission Control in Houston, no one in their living rooms in front of those analog TVs participated.

A live Zoom call between 20 or so students across the world with the Artemis III moonwalkers would be a different matter entirely. The “Artemis Generation” would, in its own way, participate in the first crewed lunar expedition in over 50 years. The lunar Zoom call could be part of a worldwide STEM education program related to the Artemis III expedition.

NASA already has a STEM program related to science being conducted on the International Space Station. The ISS astronauts regularly conduct calls with school students, such as one that recently occurred with students at the Advanced Learning Academy in San Antonio, Texas in early March. An Artemis STEM program, perhaps including student-developed experiments to be performed by the astronauts, would be an extension of those initiatives.

Supporters of returning humans to the moon have cited reasons such as science, the hunt for resources and the acquisition of soft political power. But, perhaps, the noblest reason might be showing young people the glorious possibilities of a new age of space exploration and how they might become part of it.

Mark R. Whittington, who writes frequently about space policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?” as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond” and, most recently, “Why is America Going Back to the Moon?” He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.