Why We’re Headed Back to the Moon For the First Time in Half a Century

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“We go for all humanity,” remarked Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, moments before the rocket taking him and his crew to the moon launched on Wednesday. It’s the first moon mission since 1972. But the astronauts will not land on the moon. Instead, over the next 10 days, the crew will study the science that’s necessary to get to the ultimate goal: A moonbase that can sustain human life and act as a jumping off point for missions to Mars. We talk about the science of space exploration, and its impacts on life on earth. Guests: Loren Grush, global space reporter, Bloomberg; author, "The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts" Anthony Colaprete, acting director for the science directorate, NASA Ames Research Center - Colaprete is on the science team for the Artemis II mission Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	An engineer round the corner whenever you need.
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0:46.0	From KQED. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. The last time we went to the moon, Richard Nixon was the present.
0:56.0	The most popular show on television was the sitcom All in the Family featuring Archie Bunker.
1:00.0	There was no Apple, no Microsoft, no personal computers at all.
1:03.0	The only telephone most people had used was the thick black unit issued by the Bell system.
1:09.0	That is to say, the moon might be the same moon
1:12.3	American astronaut visited from 1969 to 1972 during the Apollo missions, but we have changed
1:18.7	our nation, our society, and our ways of doing science too. Here to discuss NASA's new Artemis
1:25.3	2 mission, we're joined by Anthony Tony Colapreet. He's interim
1:30.3	science director at NASA Ames and part of the science team for the Artemis 2 mission. Welcome,
	...

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