Artemis 3

Artemis 3 (also known as Artemis III) is a planned 2024 flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft to be launched on the Space Launch System. It is planned to be the second crewed mission of the Artemis program and the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.[2]

Artemis 3
Summary of the Artemis 3 mission
NamesExploration Mission-3 (2017–19)
Mission typeCrewed lunar landing
OperatorNASA
Mission duration~30 days[1]
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft
Manufacturer
Start of mission
Launch date2024 (planned)[2]
Rocket
Launch siteKennedy, LC-39B
End of mission
Landing sitePacific Ocean (planned)
Moon lander
Landing siteSouth polar region
 

Mission

Artemis 3 will land a crew at the Moon's south polar region.[4] It is planned to have two astronauts on the surface of the Moon for about one week.[5] The mission is intended to be the first to place a woman on the Moon.[6] While up to four astronauts would leave Earth on board Orion, the surface mission with the HLS will consist of two crew members, who will remain on the surface for 6.5 days. The remaining astronauts will stay on board the Gateway / Orion orbital complex. The two astronauts will conduct up to four spacewalks on the surface of the Moon, performing a variety of scientific observations, including sampling water ice. Before the Artemis 3 landing, some additional equipment will be pre-positioned on the surface, including an unpressurized rover for astronauts to use during their spacewalks. This rover will have the capability to be controlled remotely. Several permanently shadowed regions could be reached by short forays of 5 to 15 km (3.1 to 9.3 mi), well within the range of the unpressurized rover.[7]

Spacecraft

In May 2019, NASA selected eleven companies to produce studies of a multi-element landing system that would be staged on the Lunar Gateway previous to the docking of the Artemis 3 crew.[8] These are termed "transfer element" (to low-lunar orbit), the "descent element" to take the crew down to the Moon's surface, and an "ascent element" that would take them back to the Gateway.[9] After Artemis 3, it is intended to make these systems reusable through refueling.[9]

Development

Upon the December 2017 ratification of the Trump administration's Space Policy Directive 1, a crewed lunar campaign – later known as the Artemis program – utilising the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) and a space station in lunar orbit was established. Originally billed as Exploration Mission-3 (EM-3), the goal of the mission was to send four astronauts into a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon and deliver the ESPRIT and U.S. Utilization Module to the lunar space station, known as the Gateway.[10] By May 2019 however, ESPRIT and the U.S. Utilization Module – now called HALO – was re-manifested to fly separately on a commercial launch vehicle instead. Artemis 3, as it was now billed, was repurposed to accelerate the first crewed lunar landing of the Artemis program to 2024, with a profile that would've seen the Orion MPCV rendezvous with a minimal Gateway made up of only the Power and Propulsion Element and a small habitat/docking node with an attached commercially-procured lunar lander known as the Human Landing System.[11] By early 2020, plans for Orion and the HLS to rendezvous with the Gateway were abandoned in favour of a solo demonstration of Orion and HLS, and development of the Gateway independent of the Artemis program.[12][13]

See also

References
  1. Gebhardt, Chris (22 September 2017). "SLS EM-1 and EM-2 launch dates realign; EM-3 gains notional mission outline". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  2. Davis, Jason (6 September 2018). "Orion's third flight will haul two pieces of a space station to lunar orbit". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  3. Sarah Loff (16 October 2019). "NASA Commits to Future Artemis Missions With More SLS Rocket Stages". Twitter. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  4. Chang, Kenneth (25 May 2019). "For Artemis Mission to Moon, NASA Seeks to Add Billions to Budget". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2019. Under the NASA plan, a mission to land on the moon would take place during the third launch of the Space Launch System. Astronauts, including the first woman to walk on the moon, Mr. Bridenstine said, would first stop at the orbiting lunar outpost. They would then take a lander to the surface near its south pole, where frozen water exists within the craters.
  5. "NASA outlines plans for lunar lander development through commercial partnerships". 21 July 2019.
  6. "NASA unveils schedule for 'Artemis' 2024 Moon mission". France24. 23 May 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  7. NASA shares details of lunar surface missions—and they're pretty cool
  8. NASA Awards $45.5 Million for Private Moon Lander Work on Project Artemis. Mike Wall, Space. 17 May 2019.
  9. Artemis Moon Program Advances – The Story So Far. NASA. 31 May 2019.
  10. Sloss, Philip. "NASA evaluates EM-2 launch options for Deep Space Gateway PPE". Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  11. NASA administrator on new Moon plan: 'We're doing this in a way that's never been done before'. Loren Grush, The Verge. 17 May 2019.
  12. Gohd, Chelsea (16 March 2020). "NASA's 'critical path' to the moon no longer requires a lunar Gateway: Report". Space.com. Archived from the original on 16 May 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020. NASA has removed the Lunar Gateway from its "critical path" to return humans to the moon by 2024, according to a SpaceNews report.
  13. Foust, Jeff (14 May 2020). "NASA refines plans for launching Gateway and other Artemis elements". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on 16 May 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020. ...Loverro reiterated previous statements that the Gateway will not be used for the Artemis 3 mission that will attempt to land humans on the moon to "make that mission have a higher probability of success".
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