NASA had landed on our satellite with Apollo 17, the last manned flight to the Moon in 1972. In the 50 years that have passed, no agency, including NASA, has sent humans to the Moon. But that will change in the near future, as NASA has announced the landing zones for the Artemis 3 mission.
The American space agency NASA announced at a press conference on August 19 that they had identified potential landing sites for the manned Artemis 3 mission. The agency, which has identified 13 potential landing sites in total, will conduct scientific research and exploration in these regions clustered near the Moon’s south pole.
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Sarah Noble of NASA’s Planetary Science division states that the regions identified are all exciting and that many of them have already been mentioned by the scientific community for years.
The locations identified by NASA as potential landing and exploration sites are: Faustini Rim A, Peak Near Shackleton, Connecting Ridge, Connecting Ridge Extension, de Gerlache Crater, de Gerlache-Kocher Massif, Haworth, Malapert Massif, Leibnitz Beta Plateau, Nobile and Amundsen rim crater.
Starship HLS will be used on the first manned Moon mission in years
SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System vehicle is critical for Artemis 3, NASA’s first manned Moon mission in 50 years. “This will be our first manned landing on the Moon’s south pole, and it will also be Starship’s first landing,” NASA’s Kirasch said. So we have to be very careful with the engineering and safety limitations of the mission.” said.
NASA will search for water on the Moon on the Artemis 3 mission
The Artemis 3 mission targets previously unexplored parts of the Moon. In these locations close to the south pole region, frozen water can be found, according to data obtained from orbital observations. Examining frozen water as well as other easily volatile volatile compounds can reveal the history of the Moon and its relationship to the Earth. Meanwhile, frozen ice is of great interest because it is planned to use it as rocket fuel at future lunar stations.
When is the NASA Artemis mission?
NASA’s Artemis mission will actually begin shortly. Artemis 1 will launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on August 29. This mission will be a test flight without a crew. This mission will test NASA’s most powerful rocket ever, the SLS (Space Launch System – Space Launch System) and the Orion crew capsule.
If all goes well, in 2024 the Artemis 2 mission will send astronauts into lunar orbit. And if this mission goes through without any problems, Artemis 3 mission will take people back to the Moon in 2025 or 2026.
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