The first launch of the SLS rocket is imminent and will be unmanned, but the Artemis program is extremely ambitious.

This time, NASA will return to the Moon, but not alone: ​​with the help of private partners, as well as with the help of other space agencies interested in this cooperation and planning a permanent presence on our natural satellite, from where a crew will probably fly to Mars one day.

The SLS rocket, now on the launch pad, is only the first step in a complex program to explore the moon of Artemis: it is by far the simplest mission proposed by NASA for the near future, and involves only testing the Orion capsule in the lunar zone. space, that is, from the Earth to the Moon and back. The Orion capsule will fly around the Moon before returning safely, we hope, to Earth. And only after the recovery of the “Orion” capsule will things really get complicated, because NASA will have to prepare the “Artemis-2” mission.

If Artemis-1 goes well, we’ll all be taking a break next year, because launching a rocket to the moon hasn’t been easy: NASA doesn’t plan to launch the SLS in 2023, but promises that in 2024 we’ll see the rocket monstrosity back on the mission’s launch pad Artemis-2.

It’s already in the works, the ICPS secondary and the Orion capsule, the Europeans have been more diligent and have already delivered the capsule service module from last year, so things seem to be going well. It will be a shorter mission of only 10 days, when the capsule will not go into lunar orbit, but will fly around the moon and return home under the influence of gravity alone, without firing the main engine of the European Service Module.

Why the rush? Because there will be astronauts on board, NASA doesn’t want to keep them in space too long until they’re sure Orion isn’t capricious. We don’t yet know who NASA may announce the names of the lucky four after the Artemis-1 mission ends, but for now we do know that anyone from the current crew of astronauts could participate in future Artemis-1 missions.

And also in 2024, but in November, that is, a few months after the Artemis-2 mission, the Falcon Heavy rocket will launch the first two elements of the future Gateway space station: Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO).

Artemis-3 is planned for 2025

Artemis-3 is scheduled for 2025 and involves the arrival of astronauts to the Gateway space station using the Orion capsule, from where they will board the Starship HLS (a special version of the current SpaceX Starship designed for landings) and land somewhere near the south pole of the Moon. .

In fact, this is the role of this space station, to allow the transfer of astronauts from Orion to a vehicle that will take them to the surface of the Moon, whether we are talking about Starship HLS or another vehicle that will be built in the future.

I mean, I don’t think we’ll see astronaut crews spend 6 months aboard Gateway, because the plan isn’t to permanently inhabit the lunar space station, only when landings are planned.

Now, in order to speed up the landing on the moon with Artemis-3, the presence of Gateway is not mandatory for this mission, the astronauts will be able to transfer directly from the Orion capsule to the Starship to reach the surface of the moon, at least this is one of the requirements of NASA to Elon Musk’s company. Artemis-3 will also be the last mission launched using the SLS rocket in its initial variant, Block 1. After Artemis-3, the plans start to get a little more vague.

Artemis-4 is scheduled for 2026 and will use the SLS Block 1B rocket, which involves replacing the current ICPS second stage (borrowed from the United Launch Alliance and Delta IV rockets) with a new, much more powerful second stage called the Exploration Upper Internship (EUS).

The International Habitat Module (I-HAB), built by ESA and JAXA, will arrive at Gateway with the crew, so expect European and Japanese astronauts to reach the moon by 2030.

Next up is Artemis-5 in 2027 and the ESPRIT module of the Gateway space station

Next up is Artemis-5 in 2027 and the Gateway space station’s ESPRIT module, a mission where we should see the SLS rocket powered by Aerojet Rocketdyne’s all-new RS-25E engines. I say brand new because by then the SLS will be using the engines that powered the space shuttles and the legacy inventory will have expired with the Artemis-4 mission. But Aerojet Rocketdyne promises that the new engines will be cheaper.

Artemis 6 will arrive in 2028, you guessed it, we’ll see several landings per year starting in 2025. That is until 2029, when the Artemis 7 mission will no longer have a crew, as we will see the debut of the cargo variant of the SLS Block 1B rocket.

Artemis-8 (2030) will be the last mission to use the Block 1 version of the SLS rocket, and NASA will have to find alternatives to the SLS rocket’s current liquid-fuel boosters, starting with the Artemis-9 mission (the current legacy). nodes from space shuttles will run out).

It remains to be seen whether solid-fueled accelerators will continue to be used or whether liquid-fueled accelerators will be built. There is no doubt that the Block 2 version of the SLS rocket will debut in 2031 with the Artemis-9 mission.

All of this is true in the most optimistic scenario where no mission is delayed due to technical issues, lack of funding, or worse, events I don’t even want to mention. What will happen after 2032?

No one knows, but in theory, if we already have a full-fledged Gateway space station, an SLS rocket that launches at least once a year, two lunar landers, and probably SpaceX’s Starship rockets, we can consider building a basic Selena series, with connected modules somewhere near the south pole of the Moon.

Maybe 3D printers will arrive on the moon to make components from lunar regolith (that fine dust that covers the entire moon), and maybe sometime after 2035 the first rocket will take off from the moon to Mars. But until then, let’s see what happens in the Artemis-1 mission.