NASA’s Artemis program sent the Orion spacecraft around the moon, carrying astronauts farther from Earth than ever before, as millions back home watched. Now the space agency is planning missions that will land astronauts on the moon and build a permanent base on the lunar surface to serve as a jumping-off point for human space flight to Mars.
“The Moon Base will be America’s and humanity’s first outpost on another celestial world,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman says of the base , planned to open by 2032. “Every mission, crewed and uncrewed, will be a learning opportunity as we return to the lunar surface, build the infrastructure to stay, and master the skills required to live and operate in one of the most demanding and dangerous environments imaginable.”
Artemis missions blend public and private-sector technology and enlist international partners. On crewed missions, the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket propels astronauts from Earth. The Orion spacecraft and a human landing system will work together to deliver the first humans to the moon’s surface since NASA’s last Apollo mission in 1972.
During Artemis II’s lunar flyby in April, astronauts (including Canadian Jeremy Hansen) aboard the Orion spacecraft they nicknamed “Integrity” sent back pictures of the far side of the moon and a solar eclipse, an image seldom seen from space.
Over the next several years, the Artemis program will launch dozens of uncrewed missions that will use robotic spacecraft to survey sites for the moon base and deposit supplies for astronauts’ future use, says Carlos García-Galán, NASA’s Moon Base program manager.
The agency next sends astronauts into space on Artemis III, set to launch in 2027. The crew of NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, along with the European Space Agency’s Luca Parmitano, will test Orion’s interoperability with lunar landers in Earth orbit in preparation for a moon landing mission the following year.
Artemis IV, planned for 2028, will land two astronauts on the moon for a weeklong stay near the lunar South Pole. NASA expects to return to the moon with Artemis V later that year to begin building the moon base. Future crewed missions will continue at a pace of at least once per year, NASA says.
Artemis missions are guided by the Artemis Accords , a set of nonbinding principles and norms for civil space exploration. Started in 2020, the accords now have the support of 67 signatory nations.
“We are reaching for the stars once again with the same ingenuity, courage, and indomitable spirit that have defined our national story for 250 years,” President Trump said in May, calling for “a new Golden Age of space exploration.”
For The Silo, Charles Hoskinson/ShareAmerica.