The Artemis project is still around today the most amazing project of all NASA assets. Returning to the moon more than 50 years after man last set foot on it is a milestone, not least because of the technical complexity of the mission, a problem that was successfully solved as early as the 1960s. and also because it presupposes a return to space exploration as conceived in the space program initiated by JF Kennedy.

Few people know this, but the Apollo program, which was canceled before completion, was not satisfied with reaching the Moon, but rather proposed the creation of a base on our natural satellite. Had it not suffered budget cuts that prevented the continuation of the Apollo program, it is very likely that NASA would have been able to to establish a lunar colony in the 1970sand that such a device would completely change the pace of space exploration.

More than fifty years have passed and the world situation has completely changed. The space race was then a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, whereas today, although the war between Russia and Ukraine has also greatly affected the field, international cooperation is the order of the day so that it can be considered the progress of any space agency is a global achievement.

This is evidenced by the statements of Jim Free, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development, which we can read in space, in which he states that NASA’s Artemis program can build multiple outposts around the moon instead of one base camp at the lunar south pole, as announced in 2020. Something for which the US agency is openly considering cooperation with other space agencies such as European, Canadian and Japanese, which are actually already part of the Artemis program.

These plans are definitely not short-term.. For now, after the success of Artemis I, the goal is Artemis II, the first manned mission in NASA’s program, in which the probe will go from Earth to orbit the Moon and then return to our planet. This mission will test all the systems that will be necessary for Artemis III, the mission that will mean the return of a human being to the surface of the Moon.

Deploying lunar colonies is a terribly complex challenge that will also require unparalleled logistics. Before the first base can be established, all the necessary infrastructure and support elements will need to be transported, many of which have yet to be designed or manufactured. And so while waiting for more official data to be revealed in this regard, NASA’s Associate Administrator suggests this it will be possible to begin work on the deployment of lunar bases between the Artemis VII and Artemis IX missions..