Over the next five years, NASA plans to spend more than $41 billion to land astronauts on the moon as part of the Artemis program, reports Ars Technica journalist Eric Berger.
According to the published funding schedule, $7.9 billion is provided for 2024 alone. It is this year, according to preliminary plans, that NASA should send a crew of 4 astronauts on a trip around the moon as part of the Artemis II mission. According to NASA spokesman Jim Free, cited by Berger, that will likely be in late November.
Over the next 5 years, NASA will need more than $41 million to land two people by March 2028.
— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) May 15, 2023
In November 2020, NASA successfully completed the three-week Artemis I mission involving the uncrewed Orion spacecraft. During the trip, which began with the launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) super-heavy two-stage launch vehicle, the systems of the spacecraft were tested, which during this time covered about 2.25 million km.
Orion took the picture from a distance of 432,210 km from Earth. This is the longest distance flown by any potentially manned spacecraft, surpassing Apollo 13’s record of 400,171 km set in 1970.
After all, returning humans to the moon (which has not happened since Apollo 17 in 1972) is the mission of Artemis III. Two of the four astronauts (and a woman among them) who will go to the moon on the Orion spacecraft are to transfer to the Starship and land near the south pole of the moon for a science program designed for six-plus Earth days. After completing their tasks, they will return to Orion and head to Earth.
The tentative date for the implementation of the mission – 2025 – is still questionable due to the possibility of funding and technological difficulties.
- The directive, which marked the return to the lunar exploration program, was signed by Donald Trump on December 11, 2017. Since then, NASA has launched a number of initiatives aimed at achieving key goals and realizing the ambitious lunar program. Currently, nine countries, including Ukraine, participate in Artemis.
- The Artemis program also envisages the construction of the Lunar Gateway space station in lunar orbit, which will dock with lunar landing modules already being developed by private companies. A joint statement on the creation of the station was signed by NASA and Roscosmos at the end of 2017, but in January 2021, Russia was excluded from the project’s expert group. Probably, the aggressor in the program will be replaced by the UAE – in December 2022, Boeing held the first negotiations with the country.
- NASA has also signed agreements for cooperation in the construction of the Lunar Gateway with other international partners, such as the European Space Agency (providing modules for housing and refueling, service modules for “Orion”, etc.), the Canadian Aerospace Agency (will provide robotic interfaces for the modules) and the Agency for of Japan Aerospace Exploration (will provide Gateway’s basic life support capabilities and additional space where the crew will live, work and conduct research during Artemis missions).
- At the same time, the space agency is engaged in the development of hermetic all-terrain vehicles, spacesuits and other technologies that will be used during the landing and work of people on the moon. In April 2023, NASA announced the names of the astronauts who will go into lunar orbit as part of the Artemis II mission. They are Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Cook and Jeremy Hansen.
In general, many years and efforts, as well as $30 billion, were spent on the development of all previous programs that preceded Artemis and had such a goal. The current $41 billion also still exists only on paper, and taking into account how the space programs were transformed with the change of political course in the country , it’s hard to predict what the future holds for Artemis.
