NASA wants astronauts to go back to the
Moon in 2024.
In March, Vice President
Mike Pence announced that NASA was directed to return American astronauts to the lunar surface within the next five years "by any means necessary".
That return to the moon would mark the first crewed moon mission since the Apollo program ended nearly fifty years ago.
The new program, according to NASA, is called Artemis.
Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the Moon in Greek mythology.
She now personifies NASA's path to the Moon as the name of NASA's program to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024.
NASA says the new program will include the first woman to land on the Moon and the next man.
NASA says when they land, the American astronauts will be the first to step foot on the Moon's South Pole where no human has ever been before.
As a result of the Artemis program, NASA hopes to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon by the year 2028 to uncover new scientific discoveries, demonstrate new technological advancements and lay the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy.
“President Donald Trump has asked NASA to accelerate our plans to return to the Moon and to land humans on the surface again by 2024. We will go with innovative new technologies and systems to explore more locations across the surface than was ever thought possible. This time, when we go to the Moon, we will stay. And then we will use what we learn on the Moon to take the next giant leap - sending astronauts to Mars," said Jim Bridenstine, NASA's Administrator.
NASA says they are building a spacecraft called Orion to take astronauts to deep space that will usher in a new era of
space exploration.
The new spacecraft will carry up to four crew members and is designed to support astronauts traveling hundreds of thousands of miles from home, where getting back to Earth takes days rather than hours.