What Goes Up…

NASA—at 14:00 EDT on Friday, 19 August 2022—will hold a media teleconference during which the public will be apprised of regions near the moon’s south pole which the space agency has deemed suitable for lunar landings. The teleconference precedes the 29 August launch of Artemis I, which marks the first step of mankind’s long-awaited return to the moon.

The lunar regions upon which NASA will expound each encompass potential landing sites for NASA’s Artemis III mission, which—barring setbacks—will land humans on the moon for the first time since Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt reentered the Apollo 17 lunar-module and departed the Taurus–Littrow lunar valley on 14 December 1972.

Selection of the candidate regions was predicated upon terrain, communications and lighting conditions, and compatibility with Artemis III’s scientific objectives. NASA will engage with the broader science community in the coming months to discuss the merits of each region.

Teleconference participants include:

• Mark Kirasich, deputy associate administrator for the Artemis Campaign Development Division, NASA Headquarters.
• Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist, NASA Headquarters.
• Sarah Noble, Artemis lunar science lead, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters.
• Prasun Desai, deputy associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters.

 NASA’s Artemis Program is a multinational collaborative effort comprising governmental space agencies and private sector spaceflight concerns.

The program was undertaken in 2017 for purpose of revitalizing a U.S. Space Program in which public interest had lagged in the absence of riotous and rousing Space Shuttle launches. Artemis missions are scheduled to occur at intervals of one-year (or more) and successively increase in scope, complexity, and ambition.

NASA and its partner enterprises and agencies have planned a total of five Artemis sorties, each building on the last. The program’s first attempt to land humans on the moon is slated to occur during 2025’s Artemis III mission.

Artemis’s objective, methodology, price tag, and politicization have been criticized by numerous space professionals, including Apollo luminary Buzz Aldrin, who disagrees with NASA's current goals and priorities, including the agency’s plans for a lunar outpost. Colonel Aldrin has also questioned the vehicular and orbital logistics by which Artemis mission planners intend to carry out the Artemis III lunar landing.

FMI:www.nasa.gov