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(CNN Spanish) -
On July 24, 2019, NASA proposed a clear and ambitious mission: the Artemis program, with which it intends to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon in 2024.
Simply put, humanity's return to Earth's natural satellite since the last crew on Apollo 17 did in 1972.
After nearly two years of setting that goal, work on the program has advanced, so much so that the first phase of Artemis is going according to plan and with a view to making its first unmanned test flight later this year.
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What is Artemis?
As explained above, it is a program with which NASA, in collaboration with other special agencies and private companies, will return humans to the Moon in 2024 (specifically with a moon landing at the south pole of the natural satellite).
The program mainly consists of three phases:
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Artemis I
- The goal here is to build the Space Launch System (SLS).
It is considered the most powerful rocket in history and is the one that will take humans to the Moon in 2024. In this first phase, construction will be completed and will be launched together with the Orion capsule (where the astronauts will go in the future) to carry out the first test flight, which is scheduled for November of this year.
Artemis II
- NASA plans to launch a second test flight of the SLS and the Orion capsule in this phase.
According to plans, it will be in 2022 and it will be the first with a crew.
Artemis III
- The final phase of the program and, at the same time, the beginning of a constant presence on the Moon.
NASA foresees that at this stage the first woman and the next man will reach the Moon in 2024 and that, thereafter, manned missions will be made to the Earth's natural satellite every year.
The goal is for there to be a continuous human presence on and around the Moon by 2028.
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How is Artemis doing?
SLS and Orion
Lucas Paganini, a program scientist at NASA headquarters, said that both the SLS and the Orion capsule are "in full development," which is in line with plans to launch the first test flight in November.
Everything that is the Space Launch System is in full swing;
it is going to be the rocket that will allow us to reach the Moon, just as Saturn 5 in the Apollo program allowed us to get there ”last century, said the expert in an interview with CNN.
At the same time, "Orion is being worked on, which is going to be the capsule that will take astronauts to the Moon," he added.
Moon landing systems
On the other hand, Paganini stressed that another important element so that humans can return to the Moon in the future are the lunar landing systems;
that is, the ships that will ultimately reach the surface of the Moon with the astronauts.
"The human lunar landing system has just been contracted with SpaceX," he commented.
On April 16, Elon Musk's company won a $ 2.89 billion contract from NASA to carry this out.
SpaceX's lunar landers are already in development and these are the Starship spacecraft, some of which have ended in explosions in tests but which recently managed to land safely.
Gateway
Likewise, the NASA scientist indicated that work will soon be carried out on another of the elements of great importance for the continued presence of humanity on the Moon.
It is the Gateway, "which is going to be a kind of International Space Station that is going to be orbiting the Moon," said Paganini.
According to NASA's plans, in 2024, the Orion capsule will arrive at the Gateway, with which the astronauts will be in lunar orbit and then land on the moon.
“It will allow us to explore beyond the Moon.
The plan is to go to Mars "with the Gateway as a starting point, he said.
“We need an intermediate station, that's why the Gateway will be generated.
Imagine that launching rockets from the Earth is a little more complicated than from the Moon where gravity is much less, it is much easier to explore that way ”, concluded Paganini.
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