In around two years, NASA wants to land people on the moon again. Where exactly has yet to be decided. Possible landing sites have now been narrowed down.
In its search for a landing site for the first manned lunar mission in more than half a century, NASA has selected nine possible locations. The US space agency said the locations were all in the region of the Earth’s satellite’s south pole, where astronauts had never been before. They should now be further researched before a final decision is made.
“The Moon’s south pole is a completely different environment than the one we landed in during the Apollo missions,” said NASA scientist Sarah Noble. “It gives us access to some of the oldest regions of the Moon, as well as cold, shadowy regions that could contain water and other components. Any of these landing sites would allow us to do great research and make new discoveries.”
With the “Artemis” program named after the Greek goddess of the moon, NASA wants to put people on the moon again – including the first non-white person and the first woman. The long-term goal of “Artemis” is to establish a permanent lunar base as a basis for missions to Mars.
However, NASA had to postpone the manned lunar orbit “Artemis 2”, which was actually planned for November 2024, to September 2025 due to problems with the rocket and spacecraft, and the planned manned lunar landing “Artemis 3” to September 2026. There is competition from China, which will have humans by 2030 want to bring to the moon. The last time people were on the moon was in 1972 as part of NASA’s Apollo missions.