- Recently, NASA published the outline for its Artemis program, which plans to send the next man and first woman to the lunar surface by the year 2024.
- The last time NASA sent humans to the Moon was in 1972, during the Apollo lunar mission.
What is the Artemis program?
- With the Artemis program, NASA wishes to demonstrate new technologies, capabilities and business approaches that will ultimately be needed for the future exploration of Mars.
- The program is divided into three parts, the first called Artemis I is most likely to be launched next year and involves an uncrewed flight to test the SLS and Orion spacecraft.
- Artemis II will be the first crewed flight test and is targetted for 2023.
- Artemis III will land astronauts on the Moon’s South Pole in 2024.
What does it take to go to the moon?
- For NASA, going to the moon involves various elements – such as
- the exploration ground systems (the structures on the ground that are required to support the launch),
- the Space Launch System (SLS), Orion (the spacecraft for lunar missions),
- Gateway (the lunar outpost around the Moon),
- lunar landers (modern human landing systems) and
- The Artemis generation spacesuits – are all ready.
- NASA’s new rocket called SLS will send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft a quarter of a million miles away from Earth to the lunar orbit.
- Once the astronauts dock Orion at the Gateway — which is a small spaceship in orbit around the moon — they will be able to live and work around the Moon, and from the spaceship, will take expeditions to the surface of the Moon.
- The astronauts going for the Artemis program will wear newly designed spacesuits, called Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU.
- These spacesuits feature advanced mobility and communications and interchangeable parts that can be configured for spacewalks in microgravity or on a planetary surface.
- In 2011, NASA began the ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun) mission using a pair of repurposed spacecraft, and in 2012, the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft studied the Moon’s gravity.
- Apart from the US, the European Space Agency, Japan, China, and India have sent missions to explore the Moon.
- China landed two rovers on the surface, which includes the first-ever landing on the Moon’s far side in 2019.
- The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently announced India’s third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3, which will comprise a lander and a rover.
