NASA's ongoing Artemis II mission will soon bring four astronauts home from a trip around the moon. The mission is a demonstration of new technology and global partnerships, as well as a boon for health researchers who expect to learn a great deal about the impact of space on the human body.
No human has made this journey in more than half a century, and this mission has captured the attention of Earth-bound space fans across the globe. Three Duke faculty experts discussed health, engineering, economics and other issues around the mission, as part of a recent virtual briefing for journalists.
The panelists were:
Alec Gallimore , provost and professor of mechanical engineering & materials science, an expert in advanced spacecraft propulsion.
Dawn Bowles , assistant professor of surgery and leader of a NASA-funded research program on spaceflight stressors.
And Giovanni Zanalda , a public policy professor of the practice and director of Duke's Space Diplomacy Lab.
Bowles and Zanalda are key faculty with the Duke SPACE Initiative , a multidisciplinary collaboration harnessing brainpower from across the university to study myriad facets of space exploration.
Here are excerpts from the conversation.
On What Artemis II Will Take On, and Why It's Valuable
Alec Gallimore
It's an essential ingredient for us to not only continue to operate beyond low Earth orbit but eventually get to Mars.
Artemis II … is the first time in over 50 years that humans have traveled beyond low Earth orbit. For context, the International Space Station operates at around 240 to 250 miles above the surface. The Moon is about 240,000 miles away, and the astronauts will go even farther - nearly 260,000 miles - making them the farthest humans who have ever traveled from Earth.
What's also important is that this mission demonstrates key technologies: navigating the spacecraft onto the correct lunar trajectory, operating the capsule (including manual flying), testing life-support systems, and ultimately reentry.
On Human Health Concerns
Dawn Bowles
The Artemis II mission is much shorter - about 10 days - compared to International Space Station missions, which typically last six months or longer. But it is fundamentally different.
Astronauts will travel beyond Earth's magnetic field, which normally protects us from space radiation. As a result, they'll experience significantly higher radiation exposure. Because they'll be so far from Earth, there's also greater medical autonomy. There are no rapid return options like we have on the International Space Station.
Even familiar spaceflight effects - on the heart, brain, balance, sleep and cognition - carry greater risk when astronauts are farther away. Artemis II is therefore a critical test of how humans can safely perform in deep space before longer lunar stays and, eventually, Mars missions.
Why Has It Taken So Long to Go Back Up There?
Giovanni Zanalda
If we think about the Apollo program of the late 1960s and early 1970s versus Artemis today, we see very different geopolitical contexts.
Apollo was driven by Cold War competition with the Soviet Union. Success meant being first on the Moon. Once that goal was achieved, much of the political motivation disappeared, and human missions beyond low Earth orbit stopped for decades.
Artemis reflects a new strategic environment. It's not about a one-time mission - it's about building a sustained human presence, developing infrastructure, enabling repeat missions, and turning the Moon into a long-term platform for research, scientific activity and future economic use.
How Hard Is It to Get to the Moon?
Alec Gallimore
In spaceflight, velocity change - delta‑V - is the currency. A commercial jet flies at about 600 miles per hour. A high‑powered rifle bullet travels roughly 1,800 miles per hour. Suborbital rockets reach around 2,000 miles per hour.
To reach low Earth orbit, you need about 18,000 miles per hour. To reach the Moon, you need about 24,000 miles per hour. Because energy scales with velocity squared, that jump is enormous.
That's why the Artemis launch system weighs nearly 5.8 million pounds - most of it fuel. You need that immense energy to send a relatively small capsule and service module toward the moon.
On Artemis and Heart Health
Dawn Bowles
In humans, microgravity causes rapid fluid shifts and cardiovascular deconditioning within days. Once astronauts leave low Earth orbit, increased radiation exposure can promote inflammation and damage blood vessels.
One exciting experiment on Artemis II is NASA's "AVATAR" project - A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response. It uses organ‑on‑a‑chip technology containing living cells from each astronaut. These chips will experience the same radiation and microgravity conditions as the crew, allowing scientists to study individual cellular responses and move toward personalized space medicine.
On How Space Travel Today Differs from Prior Moon Missions
Giovanni Zanalda
The Artemis mission relies heavily on international partners. So, agencies like the ESA - the European Space Agency - Japan's JAXA, the Canadian Space Agency, they are all contributing critical hardware capabilities. This kind of burden-share reduces costs for the U.S. by giving partner nations a direct stake in exploration.
On How Spacecraft Today Differ From the Apollo Era
Alex Gallimore
There are some things that are quite familiar because the engineering done during the Apollo era was extraordinary. We're using a very similar type of rocket technology. We're certainly using the trajectory. We're using the same approach about using a separate lunar lander.
But some of the technological changes occur in the advancement of electronics that we have, the life support system. The spacecraft is designed to have the four-crew astronauts be able to live on that spacecraft for 21 days. If there's a solar flare, there's a safety locker on board. But a lot of it is associated with the ability to reuse parts of the spacecraft. The rocket boosters will be reused. The capsule itself, at some point, will be largely reused. Once we capture the capsule, which will be landed in the Pacific Ocean, like we did in Apollo, we'll be able to reuse the capsule.
