NASA will reveal possible future landing sites for a human return to the surface of the Moon, and you can watch the briefing on Space.com today (August 19) or directly on the space agency’s website.
NASA is serious about returning humans to the Moon this decade and has already worked out the most convenient landing sites that will be the targets of the Artemis 3 mission in 2025.
The agency will reveal the candidate landing sites at a briefing today (Aug. 19) at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), NASA said in a statement (opens in a new tab). NASA and its partners plan to land near the lunar south pole, where water ice is believed to exist in permanently shadowed craters. The region also presents exciting opportunities for scientific exploration, including astronomical observations from the lunar surface.
Related: NASA’s Artemis 1 Moon Mission: Live Updates
NASA wants to land astronauts near the Moon’s south pole with the Artemis 3 mission in 2025. (Image credit: NASA)
“Each of the selected regions, from which specific landing sites could be selected, is of scientific interest and was evaluated based on terrain, communications and lighting conditions, as well as the ability of meeting science objectives,” NASA said in the statement. “NASA will work with the broader science community in the coming months to discuss the merits of each region.”
If successful, the landing will be the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 that humans will have set foot on Earth’s celestial companion. The ambitious Artemis program aims not only to put the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, but also to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon and in its orbit.
The first step of the Artemis program will take place later this month with the unmanned test flight NASA Space Launch System rocketthat will raise a vacuum Orion crew capsule for a round trip to the Moon and back to test a variety of critical technologies. If successful, the mission, call Artemis 1will pave the way for the first human lunar round trip in 2024 and subsequent landing in 2025.
NASA already selected SpaceX to build the landing system to bring astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the moon as part of the Artemis 3 mission.
Later in the decade, NASA and its partners (the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) plan to establish a permanent space station in lunar orbit, called Entrance doorand finally to base on the surface of the moon.
In the future, missions a March it may be launching from the Moon rather than from Earth to reduce the cost and technical complexity of such launches.
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