Under\u00a0Artemis, NASA has set a vision to explore more of the Moon than ever before. With its Artemis I mission now on the launchpad, the agency plans to return humans to the Moon and establish a cadence of missions including at the lunar south polar region. These missions set up a long-term presence to inform future exploration of farther destinations, including Mars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In November 2021, NASA senior leaders began working on the objectives in coordination with an Agency Cross-Directorate Federated Board, whose purpose is to ensure NASA\u2019s focus is integrated with common strategic goals and direction across the agency\u2019s mission directorates. The objectives enable NASA to explore synergies between the United States and other nations\u2019 objectives for lunar and Martian exploration, including potential opportunities for collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The draft, high-level objectives were released to the public and the NASA workforce in May 2022 with a request for comments by June. NASA received more than 5,000 inputs and as a result, many of the ideas were modified and some new objectives were added. NASA held consultation workshops with both industry and international partners to help refine and discuss the objectives and identify any gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re helping to steward humanity\u2019s global movement to deep space,\u201d said Jim Free, NASA\u2019s associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, which managed the objectives team, and is ultimately responsible for the agency\u2019s Moon to Mars architecture. \u201cThe objectives will help ensure a long-term strategy for solar system exploration can retain constancy of purpose and weather political and funding changes. They help provide clear direction as new technologies, vehicles, and elements are developed in the coming years and are designed to be realistically achievable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Artemis campaign represents the capabilities and operations needed to safely conduct deep space science and exploration missions at the Moon and is tightly coupled with Mars mission planning. Science is a top priority of the Artemis missions along with key exploration technology objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following a successful Artemis I launch later this month, NASA plans to send the first humans back to orbit the Moon with Artemis II no earlier than 2024, and to the lunar surface no earlier than 2025 on the Artemis III mission. NASA will use elements of Artemis to test systems and concepts for the journey to and from Mars. The follow-on Mars campaign will remain connected to the agency\u2019s sustained presence on the lunar surface by using the Moon as a testbed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kurt Vogel, director of space architectures in the office of the NASA Administrator said, \u201cWe wanted to shape objectives to guide the upcoming missions, as opposed to previous approaches, which consisted of building elements and capabilities first to support the campaign. The community provided enormously helpful inputs, and we\u2019re ready to move toward the next steps in architecture planning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final framework objectives are available online at:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Update:](\"http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/thumbnails\/image\/bg.jpeg\")
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