Artemis Mission by NASA

Artemis Mission UPSC: Relevance

• GS 3: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Artemis Mission: Context

• Recently, Artemis 1 rocket reached a launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, making it a moon rocket reaching a launchpad for the first time after 50 years.

What is Artemis 1?

• Artemis is a moon mission to send people back to the moon, including the first woman and first person of colour, by 2025.

About Artemis mission

• The mission is of great significance because last time humans set foot on the moon was December 1972.
• NASA has created its most powerful rocket ever, called the Space Launch System, or SLS, to launch the Artemis mission.
• The Artemis mission will mark a big step in humanity’s return to the moon.

Artemis mission NASA

• The uncrewed Artemis 1 is expected to launch in May or June 2022 to mark the debut of NASA’s huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
• The new megarocket will send the Orion capsule on a roughly four-week journey around the moon.
• If all goes according to plan, the Artemis 2 mission will follow in 2024, sending astronauts around the moon and back.
• Artemis 3 will put astronauts down on the moon, near the lunar south pole, with the help from SpaceX’s Starship vehicle. This landmark mission is targeted for 2025 or 2026.
• NASA hasn’t named the crew yet, but says a woman and person of color will be part of Artemis III.

Moon mission of NASA

• The Apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and other Americans to the lunar surface.
• Now, the Artemis program —named after Apollo’s twin sister, the goddess of the moon in Greek myth — could soon bring astronauts back to the moon after 50 years.

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