Humanity's Return to the Lunar Surface

By: O. Astor

With 2024 coming to an end, we can now turn and look towards the future: 2025 and beyond. One truly exciting thing that is coming up is the NASA mission Artemis III, originally set for September 2025, however now delayed to September 2026.  
This mission will be humanity’s first return to the lunar surface in fifty-one years. NASA has declared the first woman and person of color will set foot on the lunar south pole of the moon in an operation spanning the course of 30 days.  
Four astronauts will depart from launchpad 39B from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Orion, NASA’s partially reusable spacecraft, will be taking the crew from Earth and into and out of lunar orbit. After departure, the crew will travel towards the Moon for several days, before entering its gravitational field. SpaceX will provide a human landing system (StarShip) which will transport the crew from Orion in orbit to the selected landing site on the moons south pole. Two astronauts will board StarShip, while the other two remain in Orion. Orion will then undock and back away from Starship to orbit around the moon once, taking approximately 6.5 days, the length of stay of the astronauts on Starship.  
After touchdown, the crew will ensure all equipment is ready for the first day of expedition, eat and recharge. During their stay. The crew will do scientific work inside StarShip and conduct a series of moonwalks, exiting the the ship to investigate the surface, using headlamps, where they will take pictures and videos, survey geology, and take samples (testing for H2O ice, ‘soil’ of the moon, and fresh impact craters). Throughout the mission, there will be steady contact with people on Earth, so the crew will be able to report what they see, hear, and feel, and send images and videos to the ground. 
When their expedition is complete, StarShip will launch back into Orbit to meet Orion. After docking, the crew will remain for five days in orbit, transferring tests and samples between the vehicles for the journey back to Earth.  
Now traveling at 40,000 kilometers an hour, they will re-enter the atmosphere, equipped with parachutes, and land in the Pacific Ocean, where the US navy will be waiting to intercept them. 
NASA hopes the research conducted in this mission will assist in humanity’s eventual journey to Mars, which could be as early as 2035. This mission will also provide new knowledge about the largely unknown south pole of the moon. The pole is characterised by craters largely untouched by the sun, which trap fossil records of hydrogen, water ice, and other volatiles dating back to the birth of our Solar System. Furthermore, this part of the moon will be vastly different from Apollo’s landing 51 years ago, providing an important new perspective for humanity. 
“It's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” – Neil Armstrong