It was just announced on BBC Breakfast that the latest Artemis rocket is now being rolled to it’s launch pad. I’m now quite sure that I won’t be alone in finding the entire project an American PR stunt or face-saving exercise. I know I’ve touched on this before, but it really gets to me: American authority and respect must be at an all-time low; they have slipped from world leaders to a bunch of neo-fascist warmongers lead by a deranged, egotistical madman. What better way to recapture the prestige and esteem they once held than to repeat their greatest achievement? After all, the entire world remembers the incredible images of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon sixty years ago.

Of course, I’m not disputing the scientific benefits of going back to the moon. There is still a great deal we, as a species and civilisation, can learn from venturing into space; and I still firmly believe that exploring the cosmos is our collective destiny. But is Artemis really about that? Of course there will be people at NASA who are genuinely curious, and who want to return to the moon to expand human knowledge. Yet I can’t help thinking that the vehicle currently being rolled to it’s launch pad in Florida is little more than a national phallus: a huge, expensive display of American bravado, and a way to distract everyone from all the other sickening catastrophes happening in their country and across the world. A superficial way to reclaim their prestige while their nation crumbles.

That isn’t what science should be about. That isn’t what rockets are for. As things stand though, and with the US behaving as it is, I can’t help thinking this is nothing but a face saving sham. After all, these rockets are far from cheap, and there are so many other things the Americans can spend such money on – a decent healthcare system for one. Yet instead they spend it on returning to the moon in a vain attempt to regain the respect they’re loosing with every explosion over Tehran. At the very least, there is a stark mismatch between how Americans so desperately want to be seen – as enlightened scientists and explorers – and the thuggish, arrogant way their nation is currently behaving.