The agency plans to return humans to the Moon and establish a cadence of missions, including one to the lunar south polar region, with its Artemis I mission now on the launchpad. These missions establish a long-term presence to inform future exploration of more distant destinations, such as Mars.
“We’re assisting in the global movement of humanity to deep space,” said Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. The goals will help ensure that a long-term strategy for solar system exploration can maintain focus and weather political and funding changes.
They contribute to a clear direction as new technologies, vehicles, and elements are developed in the coming years and are designed to be realistically achievable,” Free added.
NASA intends to send the first humans back to the Moon’s orbit with Artemis II no later than 2024, and to the lunar surface with Artemis III no later than 2025.
In contrast to previous approaches, which consisted of first building elements and capabilities to support the campaign, we wanted to shape objectives to guide the upcoming missions,” said Kurt Vogel, director of space architectures in the NASA Administrator’s office.
“We need a long-term roadmap, and through a collaborative process, we’ve identified a core set of defined objectives to achieve our exploration goals with our partners,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said. These goals are both practical and aspirational, and we were encouraged by the thoughtful contributions of our workforce, industry, and international partners who will work with us to shape our future,” he said in a statement.
The plan is divided into four sections: science, transportation and habitation, lunar and Martian infrastructure, and operations. NASA has set a goal to explore more of the Moon than ever before under Artemis.
As part of its plan to land astronauts on the Moon in 2024, the US space agency has released a revised blueprint with 63 final objectives for sustained human presence and exploration throughout the solar system.
