The other week, NASA revealed an update on the Artemis III mission to the Moon in 2025. Now that Artemis I was a success and Artemis II is being readied, Artemis III is becoming much clearer on the horizon. The plan focuses on the first crew to land on the surface, noting that future missions will be involved in building the Gateway lunar space station.
While the Space Launch System (SLS) will get the crew into orbit on Orion, SpaceX has been chosen to bring this first crew to the moon. However, SpaceX will first need to test this human landing system on the Moon without a crew.
The landing site is likely to be on the Moon’s South Pole involving two astronauts who will take the SpaceX human landing system to the surface. They will conduct their research work in Axiom space suits.
It all may have become routine back in the 1970s, but NASA is demoing everything all over again to ensure new systems and new parties are up to par for this return to the Moon. The world is watching again, particularly China. We need to be perfect in this overdue first step back into human space travel.
You can view all of the parts of the mission in the graphic below.
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