Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
USA, Oct 30.- NASA identified nine possible areas for the return of humans to the Moon with the Artemis III mission and will continue to analyze others for future expeditions.
"As NASA prepares for its first manned lunar landing in more than five decades, the agency has identified a group of nine potential landing regions near the South Pole for the Artemis III mission (...) NASA will continue to analyze potential areas for subsequent missions, including areas beyond those nine regions," the agency said in a statement.
In January, the agency delayed the first U.S. crewed mission to the Moon in more than half a century to September 2026 to overcome the challenges of developing and integrating spacecraft systems into the Artemis program.
The second mission of the program will take astronauts around the Earth satellite to test systems and perform scientific experiments ahead of the third expedition.
The identified regions contain diverse geological features and offer flexibility for mission availability.
The lunar South Pole has never been explored by a manned mission and contains permanently shadowed areas that may preserve resources, including water.
"The south pole of the Moon is a completely different environment than where we landed during the Apollo missions. It offers access to some of the oldest areas of the Moon, as well as cold, shadowy regions that may contain water and other compounds. Any of these regions will allow us to make new discoveries," said Sarah Noble, Artemis lunar science leader, quoted in the statement.
NASA scientists will continue to analyze the lunar South Polar Region for future missions in the program.
The agency will select sites within the regions for Artemis III after setting the mission's launch date. (Text and Photo: Cubasí)
