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On Monday's live stream, Sheila Gunn Reid and Tamara Ugolini reacted to an article in The Walrus that essentially asserts NASA's current Artemis ll mission to the moon is a colonial expedition.

Author Michelle Cyca cites a space archaeologist who has written that space exploration is an explicitly colonial fantasy, seeking to conquer an “untamed wilderness . . . waiting to be filled with value.”

Cyca further claims the Artemis program paves the way for a lucrative lunar mining industry projected to reach $20 billion by 2035, with most profits flowing to private companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which holds major contracts for the mission. She portrays the effort as driven by “economic and colonial logics,” transforming the moon from a universal commons into a frontier for industrial exploitation.

Tamara condemned Cyca's comments about the 'lunar land grab.' "This is why Canada is where it is, because of thinking epitomized in this article," she said.

In reality, Artemis II — which successfully launched on April 1, 2026, carrying NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen — is a ten-day crewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft, marking the first human journey beyond low-Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972 and focusing on vital safety and navigation systems for future deep-space travel.

Far from a private "land grab," the mission advances America's long-standing leadership in space, building on decades of public investment to secure strategic advantages against competitors like China, while opening doors for commercial innovation that has already slashed launch costs and expanded opportunity for all humanity.