{"id":325856,"date":"2026-03-03T01:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T01:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/325856\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T01:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T01:47:11","slug":"nasa-announces-major-change-to-plans-for-putting-humans-on-the-moon-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/325856\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Announces Major Change to Plans For Putting Humans on The Moon : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we wait for the historic Artemis II mission \u2013 with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on board<\/a> \u2013 NASA has announced major changes to the Artemis program.<\/p>\n

The next mission, Artemis III, will now no longer land humans on the surface of the Moon<\/a>, but will instead feature a series of technology tests in Low Earth orbit. Artemis IV will then be the first human landing on the Moon, sometime in 2028.<\/p>\n

I am a professor, an explorer, and a planetary geologist. I am a member of the Artemis III Science Team<\/a> and have been supporting NASA in developing geology training for Artemis astronauts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My research involves investigating Apollo samples<\/a> and lunar meteorites<\/a> to better understand the geology of the Moon.<\/p>\n

Illustration of Artemis astronauts on the Moon. (NASA)<\/a>Why the changes?<\/p>\n

While it’s not impacted by last week’s NASA announcement<\/a>, recent delays to the Artemis II<\/a> mission are a symptom of the challenges that have faced the entire Artemis program<\/a> for years.<\/p>\n

Following an initial setback due to a liquid hydrogen leak<\/a> encountered during a wet dress rehearsal on Feb. 3, further issues for Artemis II arose during the second wet dress rehearsal<\/a> from Feb. 19 to 20. As a result, the earliest launch date is now April 1.<\/p>\n

This would make it over three years since the first Artemis mission<\/a>. Such long gaps between missions limit the ability to refine systems quickly and mean that the same issues (for example, fuel leaks) keep recurring.<\/p>\n

\"ANASA’s Artemis II rocket is at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to troubleshoot the flow of helium to the rocket’s upper stage, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. (NASA\/Cory Huston<\/a>)<\/p>\n

With the loss of more than 4,000 employees<\/a> \u2013 approximately 20 per cent of its workforce \u2013 in 2025, NASA is also dealing with significant workforce challenges, causing further strain to the Artemis program.<\/p>\n

These challenges appear to have been recognized by NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman<\/a>, who wrote in a recent social media post<\/a> that “the days of NASA launching Moon rockets every 3 years are over.”<\/p>\n

A big part of the plan involves standardizing the Space Launch System<\/a> (SLS) rocket “upper stage” \u2013 this is the part of the rocket that propels the spacecraft from Low Earth orbit toward the Moon.<\/p>\n

\"Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n

A reinvigorated Artemis program<\/p>\n

There have been lots of news stories circulating since NASA’s announcement about the shake-up of the Artemis program<\/a>, many of them referring to the “cancellation” of the Artemis III mission.<\/p>\n

This is not a fair or accurate representation of the new plans. Many people, including myself, think the new plans are not only more realistic, but also exciting in their own right.<\/p>\n

It’s true that Artemis III<\/a> will now not be the first human landing on the Moon since Apollo 17<\/a> in 1972. Instead, the mission will launch the Orion crew capsule<\/a> with astronauts on board into Low Earth orbit, where they will conduct in-space testing of critical technologies, including life support, propulsion, and communications systems.<\/p>\n

While in orbit, it’s also hoped that Orion will rendezvous and dock with one, or both, of the commercially developed lunar landers built by the companies SpaceX<\/a> and Blue Origin<\/a>. This makes sense, as the original Artemis plan went straight from Artemis II to the surface without testing these critical aspects of the mission.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>The Artemis spacesuit prototype, the AxEMU, developed by Axiom Space. (KBR\/Axiom Space)<\/a><\/p>\n

The crew may also test the new spacesuits designed by Axiom Space<\/a>, which is important because these suits haven’t yet been worn for an actual space mission.<\/p>\n

This new plan, therefore, actually reduces the risks and increases the likelihood of a successful human mission to the surface of the Moon in 2028 \u2013 Artemis IV instead of Artemis III.<\/p>\n

The most exciting, and surprising, part of the recent announcement<\/a> was that NASA will try for not just one, but two Moon landings in 2028, and then a mission every year thereafter. Suddenly, this is becoming much more like the Apollo program<\/a>, which launched 11 crewed missions in four years.<\/p>\n

What about the Lunar Gateway?<\/p>\n

There was a notable absence in last week’s announcement<\/a> \u2014 a mention of the Lunar Gateway. This is the small space station that will orbit the Moon as part of the Artemis program.<\/p>\n

In the original plans, the second lunar landing, Artemis IV, was meant to go to the surface of the Moon via the Lunar Gateway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: Quakes on The Moon Are Far More Widespread Than We Realized<\/a><\/p>\n

Lunar Gateway is very important to Canada because it will be home to Canadarm3<\/a>. As the name might suggest, Canadarm3 is Canada’s next-generation robotic arm and is a $2-billion contribution to the Artemis program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It builds on Canada’s robotics heritage from Canadarm and Canadarm2, but is far more advanced, featuring artificial intelligence<\/a> \u2013 which is necessary due to the distance it will operate from Earth.<\/p>\n

As NASA works out the plans for the second and subsequent lunar surface missions, I hope for the sake of the Canadian space program that the Lunar Gateway with its Canadarm3<\/a> will still be in the mix.\"The\n<\/p>\n

Gordon Osinski<\/a>, Professor in Earth and Planetary Science, Western University<\/a><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As we wait for the historic Artemis II mission \u2013 with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on board \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-325856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}