Artemis program (solid contrast with wordmark)

The

Artemis program The Artemis program is a robotic and human Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) along with three partner agencies: European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration ...

is a

human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...

program by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Missions in the program are aimed at

exploration of the Moon The physical exploration of the Moon began when '' Luna 2'', a space probe launched by the Soviet Union, made an impact on the surface of the Moon on September 14, 1959. Prior to that the only available means of exploration had been observatio ...

, including crewed and robotic exploration of the lunar surface. Three flights of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle are currently planned for launch in the Artemis program in the early 2020s, beginning with

Artemis 1 Artemis 1, officially Artemis I and formerly Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), was an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission. As the first major spaceflight of NASA's Artemis program, Artemis 1 marked the return of the agency to lunar exploration original ...

. Before Artemis was named, the flights were referred to as "Orion missions". Numerous supporting scientific and technology demonstration missions are planned for launch under the program's

Commercial Lunar Payload Services Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to contract transportation services able to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon's south polar region mostly with the goals of scouting for lunar resources, testing in situ ...

(CLPS), in addition to planned and proposed uncrewed logistical missions to construct and resupply the Gateway and its expendable and reusable lunar landers in

lunar orbit In astronomy, lunar orbit (also known as a selenocentric orbit) is the orbit of an object around the Moon. As used in the space program, this refers not to the orbit of the Moon about the Earth, but to orbits by spacecraft around the Moon. The ...

Main missions

Support missions

Technology demonstrations

Launched June 28 2022, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment ("CAPSTONE") mission is a small (25 kg) technology-demonstration spacecraft designed to test a low-energy trans-lunar trajectories and to demonstrate the

near-rectilinear halo orbit A near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) is a halo orbit with slightly curved – or nearly straight – sides between close passes with an orbiting body. The 2022 CAPSTONE mission is the first such orbit in cislunar space, and this Moon-centric orb ...

(NRHO) intended to support lunar polar missions.

Surface missions

The

(CLPS) program will support the Artemis program by landing several small payloads focused on scouting for

lunar resources The Moon bears substantial natural resources which could be exploited in the future. Potential lunar resources may encompass processable materials such as volatiles and minerals, along with geologic structures such as lava tubes that together, m ...

in situ resource utilization In space exploration, in situ resource utilization (ISRU) is the practice of collection, processing, storing and use of materials found or manufactured on other astronomical objects (the Moon, Mars, asteroids, etc.) that replace materials that ...

(ISRU) experiments and lunar science, in preparation for an extended human presence on the lunar surface.NASA awards contracts to three companies to land payloads on the moon
Jeff Foust ''SpaceNews'' 31 May 2019

Logistics missions

Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway Power and Propulsion Element

Uncrewed missions to assemble and resupply the Gateway will be executed as part of the Artemis program.

Notes

References

External links

Artemis program
at NASA {{Space exploration lists and timelines *Missions

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...