Ad Ulteriora: An Open Letter to the Artemis Generation
Dear Members of the Artemis Generation,
We live in the beginning and the end of an era for humanity. As the line between our world and science fiction blurs, ideas that once inhabited the imagined realms of dreamers are becoming reality. Our skies are dotted with thousands of satellites, astronauts have traveled farther from Earth than any human before them, and now humanity plans to return to the Moon and stay. Once we achieve this last milestone, it will start a new chapter in human history. Authoring this new era is our generation, the Artemis Generation. But what exactly does it mean to be part of this new generation? What makes us different from the previous generations, like the Apollo Generation?
These seem like rather straightforward questions at first, but what exactly comprises a generation? Many would say it's a group of people who either grew up or came of age during a major event in history. If we use the Apollo Generation as an example, they were defined by the Apollo missions and the first Moon landings. If we apply that to the Artemis Generation, then we're just defined by the Artemis missions and the return to the Moon.
However, I would add that the Artemis Generation is more than that. Although the Artemis missions primarily focus on the return to the Moon, the real goal is Mars. After all, why else are we going to the Moon? Humanity is not going back to plant another bootprint on the ground next to Neil Armstrong's. Instead, we're going there to figure out how to establish a permanent presence on another world. Called the "Moon-to-Mars" architecture, it involves exploring, testing equipment, and building a base on the Moon in order to prepare ourselves for the first manned mission to Mars. Once we land on the Red Planet, it will be our Apollo moment.
While following the "Moon-to-Mars" plan is a major element that characterizes our generation, there are other domains that define us as well, chief among them our relationship to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
LEO has been part of our cultural zeitgeist ever since the International Space Station (ISS) became operational in 2000. Once it came online, it became a symbolic beacon of international cooperation. After almost thirty years of service, the ISS will be decommissioned in the early 2030s. In its place, commercial low-Earth-destinations (CLDs) are being developed to fill the hole left by the ISS. These are a series of space stations, built by private companies, that will serve not only the United States and NASA but also the international community. These CLDs are designed to promote in-space manufacturing and support experiments that could not have been done on the ISS. This lays the initial groundwork for developing an in-space economy that could connect LEO and the Moon.
In conclusion, the Artemis Generation is defined by our desire to follow the Moon-to-Mars architecture and establish the foundation of a cislunar economy. However, this could not have been done without the help of those before us. The members of the Apollo Generation and the Shuttle Era gave us the foundation to be where we are today. Without the ISS, we would never have CLDs. Without the Shuttle, we would never have the super-heavy rockets of today, like Starship and New Glenn. Without the Apollo missions, we never would have had human beings see Earth from another world. Now, we carry their legacy as we begin to create our own.
This article was written by Michael Villani. To learn more about the Spacefarer editorial team and contributors, visit our About page.
