We are going to the Moon, to stay, by 2024. And this is how.
Special thanks to William Shatner for lending his voice to this project.
About NASA's Moon to Mars plans: https://www.nasa.gov/specials/moon2mars/
Credit: NASA
The Artemis program is organized around a series of Space Launch System (SLS) missions. These space missions will increase in complexity and are scheduled to occur at intervals of a year or more. NASA and its partners have planned Artemis I through Artemis V missions; later Artemis missions have also been proposed. Each SLS mission centers on the launch of an SLS booster carrying an Orion spacecraft. Missions after Artemis II will depend on support missions launched by other organizations and spacecraft for support functions.
Artemis I (2022) will be an uncrewed test of the SLS and Orion, and is the first test flight for both craft.[b] The goal of the Artemis I mission will be to place Orion into a lunar orbit, and then return it to Earth. The SLS will use the ICPS second stage, which will perform the trans-lunar injection burn to send Orion to lunar space. Orion will brake into a retrograde distant lunar orbit and remain for about six days before boosting back toward Earth. The Orion capsule will separate from its service module, re-enter the atmosphere for aerobraking, and splash down under parachutes. Artemis 1 was originally scheduled for late 2021, but the launch date has been pushed back to no earlier than August 2022.
Artemis II (2024) will be the first crewed test flight of SLS and the Orion spacecraft. The four crew members will perform extensive testing in Earth orbit and Orion will then be boosted into a free-return trajectory around the Moon, which will return Orion back to Earth for re-entry and splashdown.
Artemis III (2025) will be a crewed lunar landing. The mission depends on a support mission to place a Human Landing System (HLS) in place in a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) of the Moon prior to the launch of SLS/Orion. After HLS reaches NRHO, SLS/Orion will send the Orion spacecraft with a crew of four, which is intended to include the first woman and the first person of color to land on the Moon, to rendezvous and dock with HLS.[c] Two astronauts will transfer to HLS, which will descend to the lunar surface and spend about 6.5 days on the surface. The astronauts will perform at least two EVAs on the surface before the HLS ascends to return them to a rendezvous with Orion. Orion will return the four astronauts to Earth.[16]
You can read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program
