What’s next for NASA’s return to moon after Artemis II

NASA’s 10-day Artemis II mission to fly around the moon splashed down safely off the coast of San Diego on Friday, marking the end of humanity’s first flight to the moon in more than 50 years.

The new NASA administrator, born a decade after the last Apollo mission, quickly made clear that he wanted the gap between Artemis II and the agency’s next lunar mission to be much, much shorter.

“Sometimes you hear around here, ‘this happens once in a lifetime,’ but no it’s not,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said moments after the crew splashed into the water aboard a rescue ship in the Pacific. “This is just the beginning, we will continue to do this frequently, we will send missions to the Moon until we land on the Moon in 2028, and we will start building our base.”

Here’s how the US space agency hopes to do it.

NASA’s vision of the moon

NASA a week before the launch of Artemis II announced its ambitious new plan To create a permanent presence on the moon that could serve as a testing ground for eventual missions to Mars.

Most importantly, the agency canceled long-standing plans to build a space station orbiting the moon, called Gateway. Instead, the focus will be on building a base on the lunar surface.

“I think we’d rather be on the surface where a lot of the learning is going to happen, where we can develop skills, where we can test technology, where we can develop the capabilities that we’ll need if we actually go to Mars one day and want to bring our astronauts home to talk about it,” Isaacman said. Interview with NASASpaceflight broadcast.

“At the Gateway, you won’t just be looking down,” he added. “You’ll probably despise another country’s astronauts.”

The space agency’s Artemis program is designed to make the moon base vision a reality.

Next Artemis missions

The next Artemis mission is planned for 2027. Instead of traveling to deep space like Artemis II, Artemis III will remain in a near-Earth orbit closer to where the International Space Station is located.

The agency plans to test docking procedures around Earth between the Orion spacecraft and the lunar landers that will carry astronauts from orbit to the surface of the moon. To build these landers, private space companies Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, and SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, were used.

It then plans to launch Artemis IV in early 2028. The Orion spacecraft will carry astronauts into orbit around the Moon, and a lunar lander will land two of the astronauts at the moon’s south pole, where they will conduct science for a week.

Artemis V and beyond will aim to increase the frequency of lunar landings to every six months and will continue to test technology to make lunar landings easier and cheaper.

Lessons from Artemis II

Artemis II focused on testing the Orion spacecraft, primarily by testing its life support systems and piloting the spacecraft for the first time. For example, the crew dealt with many problems with the space toilet.

NASA also used the mission as an opportunity to examine Orion’s problematic heat shield, which unexpectedly broke at more than 100 points during the uncrewed Artemis I test mission in 2022. Using a new reentry orbit, Isaacman said It was stated that “no unexpected situation was observed” in the initial evaluations.

But the Orion spacecraft experienced problems with the helium valves in Orion’s propulsion system, which help the crew navigate space. Before launch, NASA noticed a helium leak in the system but determined that the leak would not significantly impact the mission because Artemis II had a much simpler orbit than future missions.

In space, the leak got worse, ultimately convincing NASA that it needed to redesign the system for future missions.

Beyond Artemis II’s technical goals, NASA officials were particularly pleased with the public’s response to the mission and the astronauts’ ability to connect with the public.

Moon flight is already NASA’s most watched live broadcast It has reached more than 27 million views on YouTube. The launch and opening of Artemis II is also among the top five most watched broadcasts.

In space, astronauts spoke eloquently about their surreal images of the moon and their deep love for our home planet.

“When you look here, I suggest you don’t look at us,” said Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist. I came back to Houston on Saturday. “We are a mirror that reflects you. And if you like what you see, then look a little deeper. It is you.”

Obstacles to Artemis III

NASA is already building its next high-power rocket to launch the Artemis III Orion spacecraft. The agency plans to ship the rocket’s massive orange core stage from New Orleans to Florida this month. The main two sections of the Orion spacecraft are currently located at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center off the coast of Florida.

A redesigned heat shield has already been constructed, aiming to eliminate the root cause of unexpected damage during Artemis I. But the agency isn’t yet sure whether it can repair the faulty Orion propulsion system, which is being built in Florida by the European Space Agency in Germany, or whether NASA will have to send it back across the Atlantic.

And neither SpaceX nor Blue Origin have yet tested their landers in space. A. NASA inspection last month It found that “both SpaceX and Blue Origin are experiencing schedule delays and face technical and integration challenges that have the potential to further impact landing costs and delivery schedules.”

However, NASA remains committed to a 2027 launch timeline. The agency promised to announce the Artemis III crew “soon.”