Artemis: Why Are We Really Going Back to the Moon?

April 9, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The Moon: A Pissing Contest, a Toilet Roll Telescope, and a Whole Lot of Nothing

When eight-year-old Angel Abud Madrid watched the 1969 moon landing on a grainy black-and-white TV in Chihuahua, Mexico, his father shook him awake and called it a momentous occasion. The next day, the whole family was buzzing—except for his grandmother. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," she said, "but don't we have enough problems here to be worrying about the moon? Why are we doing this?" More than fifty years later, as NASA's Artemis II mission sends four astronauts around the moon and the agency plans to put people on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972, that question still stings. The Apollo program was, as Angel Abud Madrid—now director of the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines—puts it, "the mother of all pissing contests" between the US and the Soviet Union. And today, with China and India and Israel and Japan all racing to the moon, the geopolitical rivalry is back. President Trump posted this week: "We are winning in space on Earth and everywhere in between." So is this just about winning? Or is there real science—and real treasure—waiting for us up there?

The Lunar Gold Rush That Isn't

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Introduction: The Moon is Back** - Wendy Zuckerman sets up the episode around the Artemis II mission and the renewed push to return humans to the moon.
2 (02:20) **The Grandma Question** - Angel Abud Madrid recalls watching the 1969 moon landing as a child, and his grandmother asking, "Why are we doing this?"
3 (05:35) **Claim 1: The Lunar Gold Rush** - The episode investigates the idea that the moon holds trillions of dollars in valuable resources.
4 (11:41) **The Helium-3 Mirage** - The episode examines the promise of helium-3 as a clean energy source.
5 (15:26) **Claim 2: The Moon as a Stepping Stone to Mars** - The episode investigates whether the moon is a necessary training ground for a Mars mission.
6 (20:37) **The Moon as a Gas Station** - The episode explores the idea of using lunar water for rocket fuel.
7 (21:50) **The Best Reason: The Far-Side Telescope** - The episode presents the most compelling scientific reason: a telescope on the far side of the moon.

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Show Notes

The moon race is back! NASA’s Artemis II mission just sent four astronauts around the moon. And other countries — and billionaires — are lining up to take a crack at returning to the moon too. But why are we really going? Some say this is a lunar gold rush, that countries want to mine the moon for resources. Others are saying the real reason to go to the moon today is that it’ll help us get to Mars. To find out, we talk to engineer Dr. Angel Abbud-Madrid, physicist Prof. Nicolle Zellner, and astronomer Prof. Gregg Hallinan. [REBROADCAST]

Find our transcript here: https://tinyurl.com/ScienceVsGoingBackToMoon

This episode was produced by Meryl Horn and Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, with help from Wendy Zukerman, Rose Rimler, Meryl Horn, and Michelle Dang. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Diane Kelly. Mix and sound design by Bumi Hidaka. Music written by Bumi Hidaka, Peter Leonard, Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. Thanks to the researchers we got in touch with for this episode, including Dr. Tom Simko, Professor Jack Burns, Dr. Paul Byrne, Dr. Martin Elvis, Dr. John Mather, Dr. Jennifer Whitten, Dr. Ian Crawford, Dr. Simon J Lock, and Dr. Greg De Temmerman. Special thanks to Chris Suter, Jack Weinstein, the Zukerman family, the Fausther-Keeys family, and Joseph Lavelle Wilson.

Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications.

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) We’re going back to the moon!

(06:23) Should we dig up rare earth elements on the moon?

(10:05) Should we go back to the moon for Helium-3?(14:54) The moon as a training ground for Mars

(19:55) The FARSIDE telescope: a portal into the universe’s history

(27:12) So is it worth returning to the moon?

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