Now that Artemis I is nearly complete with Sunday’s picture-perfect Orion splashdown in the Pacific, NASA officials say they are moving full speed ahead with future Artemis missions, including reaching Mars by 2040.
Artemis has always been ambitious, with plans to reach the moon to help serve as a platform to travel to Mars and even beyond. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson renewed that optimism shortly after the successful Artemis I splashdown, noting what he called “universal” support the Artemis program has already received.
“Space is the place,” he said in a news conference. “You see it in the eyes of children…You see it in the technology prowess of the free nations of the world suddenly displaying transparently everything we’re doing…In Europe, people are over the moon about our space program.”
Nelson said Artemis has brought Democrats and Republicans together in the US. “I’m not worried about support from Congress. We have that. That support is enduring.” Nelson was a NASA astronaut and served in the US Senate, leading the initial authorization legislation for Artemis in 2011 during the Obama administration.
Artemis 2 is still on track to launch with a crew to orbit the moon by the end of 2024, officials said. “We obviously want to do it quicker,” said Jim Free, NASA association administrator for Exploration System Development. Officials are still saying the timeline for a crewed landing near the lunar south pole will be 2025.
“This isn’t just one flight and done,” he added. Hardware is already being prepped for Artemis missions 2 through 5. There is also work to create a habitable Artemis Base Station on the moon and prepare for flights to Mars.
One of the most immediate steps is the naming of a crew for Artemis 2, an announcement targeted for early next year, said Vanessa Wyche, director of Johnson Space Center. Nelson recalled the public’s zeal for the naming of the seven Mercury astronauts in the 1960s, an indication of the public’s interest in crewed missions.
Beyond moon missions, Nelson said travel to Mars is within site by the end of 2039. President Obama while in office said the goal would be 2033. “Now, a more realistic goals is the end of the 2030s, but a lot depends on new technology,” Nelson said. Crews must be sustained all the way to Mars over months of travel and NASA is hoping to learn from early Artemis flights about the impact of radiation on humans over prolonged space flights.
Part of the ability to reach Mars by 2040 will depend on new propulsion technologies. Nelson said NASA has secured congressional authorizations for research dollars into nuclear thermal and nuclear propulsion that could reduce flight time. “New technologies will get us there faster and we set a target at the of the 2030s and then we’re going beyond to the universe.”
More immediately, Nelson said development of SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander for Artemis missions has met every performance benchmark on time.
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