Artemis Mission

Why in news?

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has successfully launched its unmanned Moon mission Artemis I on 16th November 2022.

About Artemis mission:

• It aims to land the first female astronaut and the first astronaut of colour on the Moon’s South Pole.
• If successful, it will include the first crewed lunar landing mission since Apollo 17 in 1972, the last lunar flight of the Apollo program.
• The Artemis program is carried out predominantly by NASA and U.S. commercial spaceflight contractors, in partnership with the European Space Agency and the space agencies of several other nations.

The program is divided into three parts:

• Artemis I: is aiming to send an uncrewed spacecraft around the moon using a combination of the never-flown Space Launch System rocket, along with the once-flown Orion spacecraft.
• Artemis II : extend the program with the moon-orbiting crewed Artemis 2 mission in 2024
• Artemis III: will land astronauts on the Moon’s South Pole in 2025

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Which of the following space mission involves the plans to send the next man and first woman to the lunar surface?

(a) Surveyor program

(b) Chandrayaan-3 Mission

(c) Artemis program

(d) Tianwen-1

Answer