So … Why Are We Going Back To Space?

The reasons are out of this world.

If you’ve been watching the news recently you might have heard stories about space coming up over and over again.

And this time, it’s not just Elon Musk.

If you’re wondering why, there’s a bunch of different things happening on that (final) frontier.

NASA seems to be keeping themselves pretty busy launching rockets and talking about stars right now, so we thought we’d update you on everything spacey.

Once you put it all together – it’s really interesting.

It’s not rocket science.

Nevermind.

Moon here we come.

The big news that’s eclipsing everything else this week is that humans are heading back to the moon for the first time since 1972.

Why the heck are we going back to the moon?

— Kronos ⚓️ 🇺🇦🇨🇺🇺🇸 (@TitanTOC) August 29, 2022

NASA is planning to get back up there as soon as they can and have built the rocket that’s gonna take them there.

The 100m tall rocket (creatively called the Space Launch System) was scheduled for its first unmanned launch on Wednesday of this week.

Unfortunately, but engine issues meant the launch was pushed to this Friday.

But why are they going back?

12 years ago, the then-US President Barack Obama waved off the idea, saying “we’ve been there before”.

But these days, it seems like NASA are aspiring to go to the moon for some pretty important reasons.

“NASA will land the first woman and the first person of colour on the moon,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.

“And on these increasingly complex missions, astronauts will live and work in deep space and will develop the science and technology to send the first humans to Mars.”

Only 12 people have ever been to the moon, the longest for about three hours.

This time, NASA’s keen to have them actually living on the moon for weeks at a time.

Scientifically, NASA’s interested in studying the moon further, particularly the possibility of finding ice in the crater.

The US is also concerned about China potentially landing on the moon and claiming exclusive space.

Let’s destroy an asteroid.

In other space news, NASA are also stealing the plot of the 1998 Bruce Willis classic Armageddon.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Project is a NASA endeavour to send out a satellite and destroy a moving asteroid.

And no, don’t worry, this one isn’t headed for Earth, but they are doing for practice – just in case.

The DART satellite entered the orbit of the targeted asteroid, Dimporphos, and is set to collide in a huge explosion on September 26.

Dimorphos is an asteroid of about 160 metres across, which would be enough to level a whole city, so it’s probably pretty good they’re figuring out how to destroy it.

There’s a lot happening in the world of space right now, and it’s pretty important to know what’s going up there, just to keep us grounded.