NASA will announce potential future landing sites for humans to return to the lunar surface, and you can watch the briefing today (August 19) on Space.com or directly on the space agency’s website.
NASA is serious about returning humans to Earth month In this decade and more, the most convenient landing sites to target have been developed Artemis 3 Mission in 2025.
The agency will announce the candidate’s landing sites at a briefing today (19 August) at 14:00 (1800 GMT), NASA said. statement (opens in new tab). NASA and its partners plan to land near the moon’s south pole, where water ice is believed to exist in permanently shadowed craters. The region also offers exciting opportunities for scientific exploration, including astronomical observations from the lunar surface.
Related: NASA’s Artemis 1 lunar mission: Live updates
“Each of the selected regions for specific landing sites is of scientific interest and has been evaluated based on terrain, communications and lighting conditions, as well as their ability to meet scientific objectives,” NASA said in a statement. “NASA will engage with the broader science community in the coming months to discuss the merits of each region.”
If successful, it will be the first time since the landing date Apollo 17 mission for humans to set foot on Earth’s celestial companion in 1972. The ambitious Artemis program envisages not only placing the first woman and the first person of color on the lunar surface, but also establishing 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 an unmanned test flight NASA’s Space Launch System rocketwill raise an empty Orion crew capsule for round trips to the moon and back to test various critical technologies. If successful, the mission is called Artemis 1It will pave the way for the first human orbit around the Moon in 2024 and landing in 2025.
NASA has already been selected SpaceX will build the landing system Taking astronauts from lunar orbit to the lunar surface as part of the Artemis 3 mission.
In the next decade, NASA and its partners (the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) plan to create a permanent space station orbiting the Moon. the doorand finally, a Foundation on the surface of the moon.
Missions in the future mars To reduce the cost and technical complexity of these launches, they can take off from the moon instead of the Earth.
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