LOS ANGELES, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) — NASA announced Friday that it has selected 13 possible regions of the Moon’s South Pole as potential future landing sites for its Artemis III mission, a project that aims to send astronauts back to the Moon in 2025.
“Selecting these regions means we are taking a big step toward sending humans back to the Moon from Apollo,” said Mark Kirasich, deputy associate administrator for the Artemis Campaign Development Division, at NASA Headquarters. in Washington.
NASA said each of these regions is located within six degrees latitude of the lunar South Pole, an area where it is believed there might be frozen water in permanently hidden craters, with uninterrupted access to sunlight for a period of time. of six and a half days, which is expected to last the Artemis III mission on the lunar surface.
The Apollo missions of more than 50 years ago reached the equatorial regions of the Moon, where the days with sunlight are longer, as long as two weeks. The South Pole can only get a few days of sunlight, which increases the difficulty of missions, also limiting the time windows in which NASA can launch.
“Several of the proposed points in the regions are located in some of the oldest parts of the Moon and, along with the permanently hidden regions, offer the opportunity to learn regarding the Moon’s history through hitherto unanalyzed lunar materials. moment,” added Sarah Noble, director of lunar science for Artemis in NASA’s Planetary Science Division.