The Artemis Program: Humanity’s Return to the Moon

The Artemis program builds on the accomplishments of the Apollo program. Established by NASA in 2017, Artemis will land humans on the surface of Moon, where they will perform activities designed to accomplish both exploration and scientific objectives. Eventually, the Artemis missions will also develop a permanent lunar base, which will enable human exploration of planetary bodies deeper in the solar system, such as Mars. Artemis will also be able to boast two other notable achievements: putting the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface (and returning them home safely, of course). Watch the below video for a well-rounded summary of why the Moon is the target of the Artemis program.

Just like the Apollo program (and the preceding Mercury and Gemini programs), Artemis will consist of several missions, the first six of which have already undergone extensive planning and/or development. In fact, Artemis I already took place in November/December of 2022 and successfully completed an uncrewed test drive of the “space car” that the astronauts will use to get to the Moon—the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Artemis II, which is scheduled to launch in April 2026, will be the first crewed  spaceflight of the Artemis program. With four astronauts in tow (you can meet those astronauts here), Artemis II fly around the Moon for 10 days to confirm the functionality of SLS and Orion equipment—such as the very important life support systems—and allow the astronauts to practice certain tasks. Artemis III, which is planned for 2027, will actually land astronauts on the Moon, specifically in the South Pole region—an area that is of great geologic interest to the scientific community.

This semester, we are lucky enough to have a guest speaker, Dr. Marie Henderson, joining us virtually to talk about her experience working on the Artemis II and III Science Teams. To prepare for this guest lecture, read the University Today article about the geology goals of the Artemis III mission and watch the video about our guest speaker.

• Atkinson, Nancy. “NASA Reveals its Planetary Science Goals for Artemis III.” Universe Today, 27 Mar 2024.

[INSERT VIDEO HERE ONCE GUEST SPEAKER CONFIRMED]

Like most things in life, successful space exploration requires a village of people working effectively together towards a common goal. Teams that work on missions like Artemis host people from a very wide range of backgrounds and expertise, many of which you probably didn’t even realize were needed! Learn about some of these cool positions by watching at least two videos from the Surprisingly STEM playlist (linked here) uploaded by Learn With NASA on YouTube. Choose the two that are most interesting to you!

Media Attributions

• “Why the Moon?.” YouTube, uploaded by NASA, 24 Aug 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmC-FwibsZg.