The Artemis II mission is in the books with a successful splashdown on Friday. Former NASA Astronaut Harrison Schmitt is one of four people left alive who walked on the moon. That was during the Apollo 17 mission. He’s also a former U.S. Senator from New Mexico. Schmitt spoke with Indira Lakshmanan on the show Here & Now before the crew returned about the Artemis II mission and his hopes for the future of space travel.
HARRISON_SCHMITT: They're getting some fantastic new images of not only the large basin Orientale, but also this one that I think I've been most excited about, is that really wonderful image of the earth in moonlight that's never been done before. You just get a hint of it when you look at a new moon down here on Earth. That was really something.
HERE & NOW: Well, the Artemis II crew made observations from the far side of the moon, the topography, as you mentioned, the Orientale Basin, which is a 600-mile-wide crater. Some of these areas on the far side were never seen before by the naked eye. You're 90 years old now, but you're a PhD geologist. You're still working on lunar research. What is the significance of some of these observations and photographs we've seen so far, and how will you and other researchers apply this information?
SCHMITT: Well, I think the primary significance is human beings took the pictures. Psychologically, it makes a huge difference to have the camera in the hands of a human being, and these astronauts have done a remarkable job, actually, on Apollo 17 in Earth light, I saw the what would be the East Rim of the Oriental basins. But getting that in sunlight is really going to make a big difference, I think, in the detail we have. It depends on the total resolution in the photography that they obtained, whether we can do better than what the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has done. And I think we will. It's a different angle, a different perspective, and that makes all the difference when you're a geologist.
HERE & NOW: Well, what would you like to see for the future of space travel and lunar missions following this one. And how do you see these findings being applied? How will this science sort of come to bear in the real world, on Earth?
SCHMITT: Well, that Lunar Science all bears, in part, on the resource potential of the moon. I actually am a founder and now executive chairman of a company focused on lunar resource acquisition in the near and midterm. And so the more information you have, particularly about the lunar Maria, the llamas that were erupted on the moon after the Orientale Basin formed. That tells you whether or not they're rich in titanium, which, in turn, is a factor in determining how much of this light isotope of helium would be available. Helium three. Helium three is the only resource we know of right now for which there's a business case that would pay to bring back to Earth.
HERE & NOW: What will you be looking for as the astronauts complete their mission and make their re-entry later today? [Note: This interview took place on Friday morning, before the Orion capsule splashed down.]
SCHMITT: Well, primarily that it all goes well and it's n safe they I'm sure they're on the correct trajectory to re enter the atmosphere. You know, the primary way in which we dissipate that 25,000 miles per hour worth of energy is by entry into the atmosphere. And then, of course, when it slows down enough, you deploy the parachutes. I have a great deal of confidence in the Orion capsule. I'm sure that the engineers have learned a lot from the Apollo program, where we really had to over design everything. They probably have designed Orion very well. And it's that entry should go very well.
HERE & NOW: Well before we let you go, one of our producers wants you to answer a question for her, since you're one of the few people on Earth who can actually answer that is it made of cheese?
SCHMITT: I tell you, I talked to my boss, Deke Sleyton, and I said, “you know, maybe the best meal we could have on the moon is a can of beer and some cheese.” He wasn't too excited about that. But the, you know, one thing to remember is Apollo was a young person's program, and I think that's the kind of NASA we have today, and that look forward to seeing them be very successful.