Artemis program

"Exploration program" and "Exploration missions" redirect here. For space exploration in general, see Space exploration.

"Moon to Mars program" redirects here. For other uses, see Exploration of the Moon.

Not to be confused with the Artemis Project, a cancelled 1990s private lunar venture.

Artemis program

Artwork of Orion approaching the Gateway (right) in lunar orbit
Program overview
Country	United States
Organization	NASA
Purpose	Crewed lunar exploration
Status	Ongoing
Program history
Cost	$50 billion (2024; estimate)
Duration	2011–2030s (planned)
First flight	Exploration Flight Test 1
Launch site(s)	Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39
Vehicle information
Vehicle type	Capsule
Crewed vehicle(s)	Orion MPCV
Launch vehicle(s)	Space Launch System

The Artemis program is an ongoing crewed spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), American commercial spaceflight companies and international partners, with the goal of landing the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface by 2024. Artemis would be the first step towards the long-term goal of establishing a "sustainable" American presence on the Moon, laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy, and eventually sending humans to Mars.

Mandated by Space Policy Directive 1 in 2017, the lunar campaign was created and will utilize various spacecraft such as Orion, the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway space station, and commercially-developed lunar landers. The Space Launch System will serve as the primary launch vehicle for Orion, while commercial launch vehicles are planned for use to launch various other elements of the campaign. The Trump administration proposed an extra $1.6 billion on top of the already proposed $21 billion for the 2020 fiscal year. The funding is yet to be approved by Congress.

History

The current version of the Artemis program incorporates several major components of other cancelled NASA projects such as the Constellation program and the Asteroid Redirect Mission. NASA originally conceived a return to the Moon by 2020 during the Constellation program which ran from 2006 through 2009. Originally proposed by President George W. Bush in the NASA Authorization Act of 2005. Constellation included the development of two heavy lift launch vehicles named Ares I and Ares V and the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle.

Development of the project continued until in 2008 when president Barack Obama was elected. He established the Augustine Committee to determine how viable a Moon landing was by 2020 with the current budget. The committee discovered that the project was massively underfunded and that a 2020 Moon landing was impossible. The committee also outlined 3 outlines for future missions.

The project was put on hold in 2009 and the Obama administration cancelled funding for Constellation in the 2011 United States federal budget. On April 15, 2010, President Obama spoke at the Kennedy Space Center announcing the administration's plans for NASA. None of the 3 plans outlined in the Committee's final report^[33] were completely selected.

President Obama cancelled the Constellation program and rejected immediate plans to return to the Moon on the premise that the current plan had become nonviable. He instead promised $6 billion in additional funding and called for development of a new heavy lift rocket program to be ready for construction by 2015 with crewed missions to Mars orbit by the mid-2030s.^[34] The Obama administration released its new formal space policy on June 28, 2010, in which it also reversed the Bush policy's rejection of international agreements to curb the militarization of space, saying that it would "consider proposals and concepts for arms control measures if they are equitable, effectively verifiable and enhance the national security of the United States and its allies.

On June 30, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to re-establish the National Space Council, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence. The Trump administration's first budget request keeps Obama-era human spaceflight programs in place: commercial spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station, the government-owned Space Launch System, and the Orion crew capsule for deep space missions, while reducing Earth science research and calling for the elimination of NASA's education office.^[5]

On December 11, 2017, President Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, a change in national space policy that provides for a U.S.-led, integrated program with private sector partners for a human return to the Moon, followed by missions to Mars and beyond. The policy calls for the NASA administrator to "lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities." The effort will more effectively organize government, private industry, and international efforts toward returning humans on the Moon, and will lay the foundation that will eventually enable human exploration of Mars.

The President stated "The directive I am signing today will refocus America's space program on human exploration and discovery." "It marks a first step in returning American astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972, for long-term exploration and use. This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprints -- we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars, and perhaps someday, to many worlds beyond."

On March 26, 2019, Vice President Mike Pence announced that NASA's Moon landing goal would be accelerated by 4 years with a planned landing in 2024. On May 14, 2019, Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the name of the new lunar program to be Artemis, named after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology.

Development

With the aim of sending small lander missions to the lunar surface as a precursor to human exploration, NASA established the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program in March 2018. The program was based on responses to a request for information issued by NASA in May 2017 into the capability of American commercial providers to launch payloads to the Moon. Under the program, the agency will fund commercial providers capable of delivering lunar landers with scientific payloads through indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts. It will qualify proposals capable of delivering at least 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of payload by the end of 2021. Proposals for mid-sized landers capable of delivering between 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) and 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of cargo for launch beyond 2021 will also be considered by NASA.

This new focus on commercial landers led to the cancellation of the Resource Prospector rover mission, which was also intended to be a precursor to human exploration, as well as the first polar lunar lander and the first robotic American lunar rover, a few days before a draft request for proposals for the CLPS program was published by NASA on 27 April 2018. By the time of its cancellation, US$100 million had been spent on its development, and various technologies intended for the rover, such as scientific instruments, will be repurposed for missions selected for launch under the CLPS program. The deadline for submissions for the first round of the program occurred on 9 October 2018. The Artemis-7 lander by Draper, a not-for-profit engineering firm previously involved in the Apollo program, was one of the proposals submitted.

While Lockheed Martin hired commercial space developer NanoRacks to study commercial opportunities for cargo delivery using the Orion spacecraft, at the 69th International Astronautical Congress in October 2018, Lockheed Martin presented their concept (Lockheed Martin Lunar Lander) for a reusable lunar lander that would shuttle astronauts between the lunar surface and the Gateway, incorporating various technologies developed by Lockheed for the Orion spacecraft. Lockheed Martin intends to submit its proposal when NASA starts to solicit proposals for larger crewed lunar landers to follow the CLPS program.

Spacecraft

Orion

Main article: Orion (spacecraft)

Artists' impression of the Orion MPCV, the primary vehicle to be used to shuttle crew to the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway

The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (Orion MPCV) is an American-European interplanetary spacecraft intended to carry a crew of four astronauts to destinations at or beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) as part of the Artemis program. Currently under development by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) for launch on the Space Launch System, Orion is intended to facilitate human exploration of the Moon, asteroids and of Mars and to retrieve crew or supplies from the International Space Station if needed.

Gateway

Main article: Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway

Originally, NASA had intended to build the Gateway as part of the now cancelled Asteroid Redirect Mission. But it has since been repurposed to support NASA's Artemis program. It will serve as a waypoint for the Orion MPCV and lunar lander as well as a secondary propulsion system to help change orbits and enable landings anywhere on the Moon. By 2024, the orbiting Gateway will be in its early assembly stage, and by then it will be made up of the 'Power and Propulsion Element' and a small habitat called Utilization Module. The Gateway 'Power and Propulsion Element' is being made by Maxar Technologies (formerly SSL) and the components and modules will be constructed by commercial companies and international partners. The Gateway commercial launches are separate from those for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services.

Uncrewed landers

Draper's Artemis-7 lander, one of many proposed for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, would deliver scientific payloads to the lunar surface. Named after Artemis of greek mythology and designated as Draper's seventh flight to the Moon, the lander would be designed by Japanese developers ispace, and manufactured by American defense contractor General Atomics, while operations of the lander and its payload would be handled by Draper.

Crewed landers

External videos
Crewed Lunar Lander Concept (1:03) by Lockheed Martin Space Systems

A proposed crewed lunar lander by Lockheed Martin Space Systems is planned to be a reusable, single-stage system that would transport up to four astronauts and an additional 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of cargo between the Gateway and the lunar surface, where it could last up to two weeks before returning to the Gateway to refuel and service. It would have a dry mass of 24 short tons (22,000 kilograms), comparatively heavier than the 4.7 short tons (4,300 kilograms) dry mass of the Apollo Lunar Module, and would have an impulse (∆v) capacity of 5 kilometres per second (3.1 miles per second). The lander's engines would use liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as a propellant, and could be refueled on the lunar surface using lunar water. Many technologies developed by Lockheed Martin for the Orion spacecraft are planned to be reused in the lander, such as instruments and module designs, helping to lower its development and manufacturing cost. Space Systems' Vice President Lisa Callahan described the proposal as a "versatile, powerful lander that can be built quickly and affordably, and would be capable of establishing lunar colonies, delivering commercial and scientific payloads, and conducting "extraordinary exploration of the Moon". Another proposal is a stretched tank version of Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander with an added ascent stage.

In May 2019 NASA announced 11 contracts worth $45.5 million in total for studies on transfer vehicles, descent elements, descent element prototypes, refueling element studies and prototypes to companies such as Lockheed Martin, Blue Origin, and SpaceX. One of the requirements is that selected companies will have to contribute at least 20% of the total cost of the project "to reduce costs to taxpayers and encourage early private investments in the lunar economy."

Launch vehicles

Space Launch System

Main article: Space Launch System

The planned evolution of the Space Launch System, the primary launch vehicle for Orion

The Space Launch System (SLS) is a Space Shuttle-derived super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle. It is a primary part of NASA's deep space exploration plans,^[8][9] including the Artemis crewed missions to the Moon, and could also serve as part of a future program to Mars.^[10][11][12] SLS follows the cancellation of the Constellation program and is to replace the retired Space Shuttle. The SLS is to be the most powerful rocket in existence^[13] with a total thrust greater than that of the Saturn V,^[14] although Saturn V could carry a greater payload mass.

Three versions of the SLS launch vehicle are planned: Block 1, Block 1B, and Block 2. Each would use the same core stage with four main engines, but Block 1B would feature a more powerful second stage called the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS), and Block 2 would combine the EUS with upgraded boosters. Block 1 has a baseline LEO payload capacity of 95 metric tons (105 short tons) and Block 1B would have a baseline of 105 metric tons (116 short tons).^[27] The proposed Block 2 would have had a lift capacity of 130 metric tons (140 short tons), which is similar to that of the Saturn V.^[19][28] Some sources state this would make the SLS the most capable heavy lift vehicle built;^[29][30] although the Saturn V lifted approximately 140 metric tons (150 short tons) to LEO in the Apollo 17 mission.^[15][31]

On July 31, 2013, the SLS passed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR). The review encompassed all aspects of the SLS's design, not only the rocket and boosters but also ground support and logistical arrangements.^[32] On August 7, 2014 the SLS Block 1 passed a milestone known as Key Decision Point C and entered full-scale development, with an estimated launch date of November 2018.^[33][34] In April 2017, NASA announced that the schedule for the maiden flight would slip to 2019.^[35] In November 2017, the Artemis 1 maiden flight slipped further to June 2020.^[6]

In March, 2019, the Trump Administration released it's Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Request for NASA. This budget did not include any money for the Block 1B and Block 2 variants of SLS. It is uncertain whether these future variants of SLS will be developed. Several launches previously planned for the SLS Block 1B are now expected to fly on commercial launcher vehicles such as Falcon Heavy, New Glenn, Omega, and Vulcan. However, the recent budget increase of 1.6 billion dollars towards SLS, Orion, and crewed landers along with the launch manifest seem to indicate support of the development of Block 1B, debuting one year later than expected during Artemis 4. The Block 1B will be used mainly for co manifested crew transfers and logistic rather than constructing the Gateway. An uncrewed Block 1B is planned to launch the Lunar Surface Asset in 2028, the first lunar outpost of the Artemis program. Block 2 development will most likely start in the late 2020s, after NASA is regularly visiting the lunar surface and shifts focus towards Mars.

Missions

See also: Proposed SLS and Orion missions

The Orion boilerplate capsule in the Pacific Ocean, following the successful Exploration Flight Test-1 mission

Three tests of the Orion spacecraft will precede the launch of Artemis 1. Pad Abort-1, the second and final mission in the preceding Constellation program, involved a successful test of Orion's launch escape system using a boilerplate capsule on 6 May 2010. The second test of Orion, and the first mission in the Artemis program, was Exploration Flight Test-1 on 5 December 2014. During the mission, an Orion boilerplate was launched atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket, and its reaction control system was tested in two orbits around Earth, reaching an apogee of 5,800 kilometres (3,600 mi) before making a high-energy reentry at 32,000 kilometres per hour (20,000 mph). The third and final test of Orion prior to Artemis 1 will be Ascent Abort-2 on 2 July 2019, which will test an updated launch abort system at maximum aerodynamic load, using a 10,000-kilogram (22,000 lb) Orion test article and a custom launch vehicle built by Orbital Sciences. Artemis 1, planned to be the maiden flight of the SLS, will be launched in July 2020 as a test of the completed Orion and SLS system. During the mission, an uncrewed Orion capsule will spend 10 days in a distant retrograde orbit of 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi) around the Moon before returning to Earth. Artemis 2, the first crewed mission of the program, will launch four astronauts in 2022 on a free-return flyby of the Moon at a distance of 8,900 kilometres (5,500 mi).

The first two components of the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, the Power and Propulsion Element and Utilization Module, along with three components of an expendable lunar lander, are planned to be delivered on multiple launches from commercial launch service providers prior to the launch of Artemis 3 in 2024. The mission, planned for launch aboard a SLS Block 1B rocket, will use the primitive Gateway and the completed expendable lander to achieve the first crewed lunar landing of the program on the South Pole–Aitken basin. A proposal curated by William H. Gerstenmaier sees four more launches of SLS Block 1B launch vehicles with crewed Orion spacecraft and logistical modules of the Gateway between 2024 and 2028. An additional SLS Block 1B Cargo launch would deliver a lunar outpost to the Moon's surface, as part of an uncrewed Artemis 7 mission in 2028 – it would be used for an extended crewed lunar surface mission, Artemis 8, later that year. Crewed Artemis 4–6 missions, launched yearly between 2025 and 2027, would test in situ resource utilization and nuclear power on the lunar surface with a reusable lander, in preparation for Artemis 8. Prior to each crewed Artemis mission, various payloads to the Gateway, such as refueling depots and expendable elements of the lunar lander, would be delivered on commercial launch vehicles.

List of Artemis program missions

Mission	Patch	Launch date	Launch pad	Crew	Launch vehicle	Duration
EFT-1		5 December 2014, 12:05 UTC	Cape Canaveral SLC-37	—	Delta IV Heavy (Delta 369)	4h, 24m, 46s
AA-2		2 July 2019	Cape Canaveral	—	Orion Abort Test Booster	~3m
Artemis 1		July 2020	Kennedy LC-39B	—	SLS Block 1	~25d
Artemis 2		2022	Kennedy LC-39B	TBA	SLS Block 1	~9d
Artemis 3		2024	Kennedy LC-39B	TBA	SLS Block 1B	~30d

List of proposed Artemis program missions

Mission	Patch	Launch date	Launch pad	Launch vehicle	Duration
Artemis 4		2025	Kennedy LC-39B	SLS Block 1B	~30d
Artemis 5		2026	Kennedy LC-39B	SLS Block 1B	~30d
Artemis 6		2027	Kennedy LC-39B	SLS Block 1B	~30d
Artemis 7		2028	Kennedy LC-39B	SLS Block 1B Cargo	~30d
Artemis 8		2028	Kennedy LC-39B	SLS Block 1B	>60d

See also

• Colonization of the Moon
• Commercial Crew Development
• Space policy of the United States

References

Notes

Sources

1. Bridenstine, Jim; Grush, Loren (2019). "NASA administrator on new Moon plan: 'We're doing this in a way that's never been done before'". The Verge. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2019. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
2. Berger, Eric (20 May 2019). "NASA's full Artemis plan revealed: 37 launches and a lunar outpost". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 23 May 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2019. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
3. Foust, Jeff (24 May 2019). "NASA Has a Full Plate of Lunar Missions Before Astronauts Can Return to Moon". Space.com. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2019. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
4. Grush, Loren (3 October 2018). "This is Lockheed Martin's idea for a reusable lander that carries people and cargo to the Moon". The Verge. Archived from the original on 18 October 2018. Retrieved 18 October 2018. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
5. Hill, Bill (27 August 2018). "Exploration Systems Development Update" (PDF). National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Retrieved 17 October 2018. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
6. Sloss, Philip (11 September 2018). "NASA updates Lunar Gateway plans". NASASpaceFlight.com. Archived from the original on 17 October 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2018. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Citations

External links

• Moon to Mars portal at NASA
• Monthly report by the Exploration Systems Development (ESD)