Astronauts are on track to live and work on the moon before the end of the decade, according to a NASA official.
Howard Hu, the head of the US agency’s Orion lunar spacecraft program, said humans could be active on the moon for “duration” before 2030, with habitable habitats and mobile vehicles to support the his work
“Certainly in this decade, we’re going to have people living for a long time, depending on how long we’re going to be on the surface. They’re going to have habitats, they’re going to have rovers on the ground,” he told the BBC’s Sunday program with Laura Kuenssberg. “We’re going to send people to the surface, and they will live on that surface and do science,” he added.
Hu was put in charge of NASA’s deep space exploration spacecraft in February, and was speaking Sunday as the 98-meter (322-foot) Artemis rocket headed toward the moon on its first unmanned mission.
The giant rocket, which is headed by the Orion spacecraft, launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Wednesday after a series of delays due to technical glitches and hurricanes.
The spacecraft is carrying three fully adapted dummies, which will record the stresses and strains of the Artemis 1 mission. The rocket is now about 83,000 miles (134,000 km) from the Moon.
“It’s the first step we’re taking for the long-term exploration of deep space, not just for the United States but for the world. I think this is a historic day for NASA, but it’s also a historic day for all people who love human spaceflight and deep space exploration,” Hu said.
“We will return to the moon. We are working towards a sustainable program and this is the vehicle that will carry the people that will land us back on the moon,” he added.
NASA astronaut Gene Cernan in a lunar rover during the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, the last time humans landed on the Moon. Photograph: NASA/Reuters
The spacecraft will fly within 60 miles of the moon and continue another 40,000 miles before turning back and aiming for a splash in the Pacific Ocean on December 11. The spacecraft will travel 1.3 million miles on the 25-day mission, the farthest a human-built spacecraft has ever flown.
Upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will travel at about 25,000 mph, sending the temperature of its heat shield up to about 2,800C (5,000F). It is expected to splash off the coast of San Diego.
A successful mission will pave the way for Artemis 2 and 3 follow-on flights, which would send humans around the moon and back. The Artemis 3 mission, which may not launch until 2026, is expected to return humans to the surface of the Moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972. According to NASA’s plans, this mission would land the first woman on the Moon, with a subsequent visit landing the first person of color on the lunar surface.
The Artemis program, named after Apollo’s twin sister, also envisions the construction of the Lunar Gateway, a space station where astronauts will live and work while orbiting the Moon. “Advance is really on Mars,” Hu told the BBC. “This is a bigger step, a two-year trip, so it will be very important to learn beyond our Earth orbit.”