Man to the Moon: Mission is a go!
For those of you who follow my page I'm sure you may be wondering, "Recordkeeper? You don't cover Astronomy! Why are you covering a space mission?" And to that, I have several answers.
1: Space missions are, to a degree, a part of meteorology (this post!)
2: The moon directly effects marine life on earth (coming soon)
3: Space missions are historic, therefore can be classified as a part of Archeology (Please see tomorrow's post)
4: Being in space effects physiology which is a part of biology (coming soon)
Contrary to popular belief, Meteorology is NOT solely the study of weather, but instead the study of the earth's atmosphere. Of course, what effects our atmosphere globally on a day to day basis is the weather, which is why we concentrate more heavily on that subject, but there's so much more to Meteorology than what is commonly discussed. I will not go further on that topic in this post, instead, please view tomorrow's "What is Meteorology?" post for more details.
However, for those of you interested in Astronomy, as well as this over all mission, many of my resources for this post may be of interest, and I also encourage you to continue following information from NASA and NOAA.
Because today may be a lengthy post, please look for the green highlighted headers informing you of what sections discuss what.
Brief History of the last 50 years:
Yesterday, April 1st, 2026, NASA launched a rocket containing the crew of "The Artemis 2" into space. As of while I am writing this, the mission is going very well, however we still have roughly 9 more days of this mission to monitor. While I won't be talking about the mission in it's entirety, today's post is intended to talk about the mission before it left the earth's atmosphere.
December 11th of 1972 marked the beginning of the last successful mission to the moon, the Apollo 17, as well as the end of the Apollo series. On December 14th, man left the moon for what would be the last time in over 5 decades. This wasn't due to risk or the end of the Space Race, but rather scientific financial cuts bringing an end to moon landings.
Artemis 2 Mission and Crew:
The overall Artemis program is the world's next biggest scientific program, it's end goal? To land humans on Mars. However landing humans on the moon is the first step, and the goal is to start a long term space station on, or orbiting the moon, for easy access to and from the moon as we continue to study what it can teach us about the history of our planet and solar system.
The Artemis 2's mission is simple, first and foremost, return humans to the moon. While they will not be landing on the moon, this 10 day mission will, if all goes well, orbit the moon in the Orion spacecraft, providing our scientists will valuable information about the moon's environment, as well as the over all functions of the Orion. In simple terms, they're testing that the Orion can in fact orbit correctly, as well as if human capability to explore space is still what it was in 1972.
The Artemis 2 is a 4 man crew, containing some major firsts:
Reid Wiseman - Artemis 2 Mission Commander and Retired U.S. Navy Captain
Victor Glover - Artemis 2 Pilot and First Person of Color to the Moon
Christian Koch - Artemis 2 Mission Specialist and First Woman to the Moon
Jeremy Hansen - Artemis 2 Canadian Space Agency Mission Specialist and First Canadian to the Moon
How The Artemis Works with our Environment:
Despite the excitement and importance behind space travel, it does come with its risks. I'm not just talking about the astronauts aboard these missions, but rather, the impact of the act of exiting the earth's atmosphere has on the environment, with the main concern being various types of pollution. While the Artemis 2 mission successfully left the earth's atmosphere, we still have to wonder what pollutants it spread with it. As of right now, its too early to say, but we can use previous space missions as examples.
What would probably have the largest overall impact are the effects of hydrocarbon fueled launches on the earth's atmosphere. We wouldn't just be looking at local ecosystems being affected, we'd be seeing a global impact, and its not hard to see why that is.
Now of course, there are many factors impacting the weakening of our ozone and increasing global temperatures, such as natural global warming and greenhouse emissions from things such as cars, planes, factories, agriculture, and deforestation. All of these factors are, without a doubt, playing a huge role in damaging our planet, but considering the sheer amount of fuel consumption from a singular rocket, the concern can go further.
According to Columbia Climate School, 221 objects were launched into space in 2016. While this does sound like a large amount, it does mean there weren't daily launches. However this drastically changed in the coming years, as by 2023, that number skyrocketed to 2,644 launches. Taking that number into consideration, as of 2026 there are roughly 15,000 satellites orbiting the earth.
Based off of research done by NOAA back in 2022, with the way that the increase in space exploration, launches, and even space tourism is going, there's enough hydrocarbon and soot pollution being released into the earth's atmosphere that we could start seeing annual temperatures rise by 1-4° Fahrenheit. Estimates done by NASA in a proposed atmospheric study on the matter suggest that emissions produced by space debris entering the earth's atmosphere could increase by 1,000 - 30,000 tons. For the record, that's roughly 2 - 60 million pounds of vapor emissions.
There's also concerns of physical debris polluting the surrounding areas before and after launch. Aside from the debris such as sheet metal and what is produced from rocket stages disintegrating, we also have to worry about the risk of failed missions exploding into a cloud of debris, or debris from orbit coming crashing back down into the earth.
A perfect example of this is the issues residing within the SpaceX missions. SpaceX's launch site in Boca Chica is surrounded by wildlife refuged and national parks. Typically when places such as these are in such close proximity to areas of conservation, they are required to adhere to strict environmental terms and conditions. While SpaceX had agreed to this, they did not hold up their end of the agreement. When premature systems meant to cool the launch site inevitably failed, the crucial sites to wildlife conservation were polluted with large amounts of debris.
Finally, these rockets are incredibly loud. Sound pollution is a very real threat, not just to humans, but to wildlife too. The IAU Office of Astronomy for Education details how a typical rocket launch is normally sitting around 195 decibels of sound, with some even exceeding the 200s. For the record, permanent hearing loss typically occurs with exposure to 140 dB. While many launch sites typically include water suppression systems to reduce this, that does not prevent exposure, it does reduce some of the severity. However, what may reduce severity for us, may not for surrounding wildlife.
Studies have been conducted to try to determine the effects noise pollution has on wildlife, long term effects are still inconclusive, but considering the auditory, physiological, and psychological effects the sound produced from rockets can have on humans, the astronauts aboard them especially, it is fair to assume harm can and is being done to local fauna.
With all that being said, we are continuing to learn, both about space and our own planet. As we've learned the hard way, where there may come major scientific breakthroughs, there may also come major environmental flaws. Fortunately, both NASA and NOAA are working closely to further study how space missions, manned or not, have their effects on our earth's atmosphere, in hopes of reducing pollution, protecting wildlife, and still allowing humanity to explore deeper into the vastness of space.
We have to cut our losses, and celebrate our achievements. I fully intend to continue monitoring the Artemis 2 mission, and I'm excited to learn all about what our Astronauts determine during their journey.
Godspeed Artemis 2
Brief History over the last 50 years:
- https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/why-50-years-since-humans-went-moon
- https://airandspace.si.edu/multimedia-gallery/apollo-17-liftoff-moon-december-14-1972
- https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/space-astronomy/why-did-we-stop-going-moon
Artemis 2 Mission and Crew:
- https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/#:~:text=Artemis%20II%20builds%20on%20the,System)%20rocket%20and%20Orion%20spacecraft.
- https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis/
- https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis-science/
- https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/humans-to-mars/
- https://www.nasa.gov/feature/our-artemis-crew/
How the Artemis Works with our Environment:
- https://research.noaa.gov/projected-increase-in-space-travel-may-damage-ozone-layer/#:~:text=Scientists%20from%20NOAA%20and%20The,and%20change%20atmospheric%20circulation%20patterns.
- https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2025/03/04/rockets-affect-atmosphere/
- https://www.discovermagazine.com/about-15-000-satellites-are-circling-earth-and-they-re-disrupting-the-sky-48550
- https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20240013276/downloads/NASA-TM-20240013276-V6.pdf
- https://www.seasidesustainability.org/post/the-environmental-impacts-of-space-travel
- https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ochmo-tb-035-acoustics.pdf
- https://www.space.com/rocket-launch-noise-endangered-wildlife-study
- https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240627-the-environmental-cost-of-rocket-launches
- https://astro4edu.org/resources/media/iV62zu84sh0/
