At the annual meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) held on October 28th, John Connolly, who leads the Mars manned exploration project at NASA, attended the details of the Artemis plan and the Mars exploration plan. It revealed whether it exists or not.
On May 14th, NASA announced the Artemis plan to send mankind back to the moon by 2024. In the Artemis plan, two male astronauts will participate. According to Connolly, the lunar mission is scheduled for six and a half days. This is twice as much as the plan of Apollo, who stayed on the moon for three days. During the one-week-month mission period, two astronauts will conduct exploration up to four times to conduct scientific analysis of the surface and sample collection of ice.
Connolly says the biggest difference between the Apollo and Artemis plans is to prepare a remote-controlled rover and other survey equipment, and to thoroughly survey the moon. NASA has announced that it will collaborate with astronauts by introducing the VIPER lunar probe into the Artemis project. The lunar probe is equipped with features that enable efficient exploration or following astronauts, such as the Smart Summon in Tesla vehicles.
The side investigated by the astronauts and the Viper lunar probe is the area of permanent shadows near the lunar pole. It is clear that there is ice water in this area, and one of the main goals of the Artemis plan is to confirm the existence of ice and to prove that it is possible to mine. In a 2018 study, it was found that there is actually ice in the lunar pole in the form of exposure to the surface.
According to Connolly, at the edge of the Shackleton Crater in the lunar Antarctica, there is a place where sunlight is almost always present during the period from October 2024 to February 2025, making it an ideal place for lunar exploration that relies on solar power as an energy source.
He is also the leader of the Mars manned exploration plan, and revealed that the final goal of the Artemis plan is to establish the technology necessary for the Mars manned exploration and the long-term development of the Moon as a foothold. Revealed. Related information can be found here .