Artemis II: Why is Nasa sending people back to the Moon?

Nasa's Artemis II mission is sending four astronauts on their way to the Moon. Their voyage around our nearest neighbour will pave the way for a lunar landing and, eventually, a Moon base. The Artemis programme has taken years of work, involved thousands of people and is estimated to have cost $93bn to date. But for some, there's a distinct feeling of "been there, done that". More than 50 years ago, America's Apollo missions made history when the first people set foot on the lunar surface. With six landings in total, it felt like the Moon had been well and truly ticked off the space to-do list. So why is the US spending so much time, effort and money racing to return? The terrain might look dry, dusty and seems rather barren, but it's far from that. "The Moon has got the same elements in it that we have here on Earth," says Prof Sara Russell, a planetary scientist at the Natural History Museum. "An example is rare earth elements, which are very scarce on Earth, and there might be parts of the Moon where these are concentrated enough to be able to mine them." There are metals too, like iron and titanium, and also helium, which is used in everything from superconductors to medical eq