Dr. R K Chadha
The time was 14:56 (UTC) on 20 July 1969 when the first human, US astronaut Neil Armstrong, stepped onto the Moon’s surface and uttered the famous phrase, That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. He was joined by Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, and both of them spent roughly 2.5 hours conducting experiments and collecting samples from the Moon’s surface. It was the 11th mission of the Apollo space program of NASA that was preceded by several uncrewed and two crewed missions, Apollo 8 and 10 that orbited the Moon to test the complete Apollo hardware and Lunar Module’s ability to fly, manoeuvre, and support space walks before landing.
Fifty-six years later, four Astronauts, NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, aboard the Orion spacecraft, liftoff from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on 1 April 2026. They will reach the closest lunar orbit around 6500 km from the Moon on 6 April 2026 when they fly by the far side, taking pictures that would provide a detailed view of the topography and other details from a close range. Astronaut Glover will become the first person of colour, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American to travel beyond Earth’s orbit.
The Mission: Artemis II is the first crewed Lunar flyby mission in more than 50 years and the second in the series of the ambitious US Moon Mission to send humans back to the Moon. This mission will pave the way for Astronauts landing on the Moon in future missions. Named after Apollo’s twin sister Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, wilderness, and childbirth in Greek mythology, Artemis I has already flown in 2022 and proven the flight abilities of the core hardware needed to access cislunar space. A cislunar space is the vast, three-dimensional region of space extending beyond Earth’s atmosphere to just beyond the Moon’s orbit. It is a 10-day mission to test the life support systems for the first time with crew who will conduct the manoeuvrability tests, medical checks, survival training and lay the foundation for an enduring presence on the Moon ahead of future missions to Mars.
The Configuration: The Artemis II mission has two main components, viz., a rocket and a spacecraft sitting on top. The rocket is a 322-foot Space Launch System (SLS) that includes engines and solid rocket boosters. The key components are: i) Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage for Trans-Lunar Injection of spacecraft and ii) Launch Abort System (LAS) to ensure crew safety during launch. This rocket will carry astronauts aboard Orion spacecraft sitting on top with two main sections, viz., A Crew Module (CM) where the four astronauts will sit and manoeuvre the spacecraft and a high-speed and high temperature atmospheric re-entry on their return and a European Service Module provided by European Space Agency (ESA) that handles power generation, propulsion and life support, featuring solar arrays and engines.
In addition, the Orion spacecraft houses several state-of-the-art avionics units to handle data generated by onboard systems, control the various functions of the spacecraft, execute commands sent from Earth or by the crew, and return systems telemetry for insight into systems status. The brains of the Orion spacecraft consist of two Vehicle Management Computers (VMC) that deliver more computing power to the Orion spacecraft than any previous crewed spacecraft. The guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) system will always provide the dynamic location of the spacecraft and control the propulsion system to keep the spacecraft pointed in the proper direction and on the correct trajectory.
The most critical elements of the Orion spacecraft is the heat shield that protects the spacecraft and the astronauts as they re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, travelling at a speed of over 40,000 km/hr and reaching temperatures of nearly 2760 degrees Celius, about half as hot as the Sun.
Expectations: Artemis missions are expected to unveil more information on the Moon than ever before, as the lunar South Pole is an area shrouded in mystery but enticing in its scientific potential. In the last more than 25 years or more, astronauts have lived and worked in low Earth orbit, below 450 km at the International Space Station (ISS) or on the three-module Chinese Tiangong space station. This mission will allow astronauts to learn how to live and work a few lakh kms outside the Earth’s orbit and protective cover of the magnetosphere, exposing them to harsh solar wind and cosmic radiation for the most part of their mission. This will lay the foundation for an enduring presence on the Moon ahead of future missions to Mars and beyond.
Future Artemis missions: Artemis III is planned for a 2027 launch to test the Human Landing System (LHS) in orbit, in which the crew is expected to land on the Moon’s South Pole in the Artemis IV mission slated for a 2028 launch, if everything goes as planned. Future missions are uniquely focused on a long-term human presence on and around the Moon. To achieve these goals, landing sites around the South Pole are being targeted along with a lunar orbiting platform called the Gateway, a type of space station in lunar orbit where lunar modules from Earth can dock for crew exchange between missions before final landing on the Moon’s South Pole base station.
Why South Pole? Earlier, the Apollo 11 in 1969 landed near the Moon’s equator because it was safe, relatively flat, and allowed easy communication with Earth. However, the equatorial region lacks significant water ice as it experiences 14-day nights requiring immense battery storage for power, making the region unsuitable for long-term or permanent bases. On the contrary, the South Pole, though rugged and difficult to land, contains copious amounts of water ice in “cold traps” below craters that haven’t seen sunlight in billions of years. A few other possible reasons are speculated: i) Living off the land by converting available water ice into breathable oxygen, drinking water, and hydrogen fuel for a rocket rather than transporting all these resources from Earth. This will cut down the missions’ expenditure drastically, ii) Solar power generation through nearby high altitude mountains in South Pole region that receive sunlight for nearly 90–98% of the lunar year, for example the Malapert Massif, iii) Unique scientific value because South Pole is geologically distinct and allows access to the Aitken Basin, the largest known impact crater, which exposes old geological material that could reveal the history of the Earth-Moon system and iv) Establishing Hydrogen fuel station by converting water ice to hydrogen to refuel rockets. This will become an ideal testing ground for the technology needed for future crewed journeys to Mars and beyond.
India’s connection: In 2023, India became the 27th signatory to the Artemis Accords, a US-led set of principles for sustainable and peaceful lunar and space exploration. The ISRO-NASA cooperation that includes the Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission is already contributing to overall lunar and space exploration technological goals. Indian American NASA astronaut Raja Chari was selected as one of the initial 18 astronauts for the Artemis Team, but unfortunately, he could not make it to the final list. Indian-born Dr. Kavya K. Manyapu of Hyderabad leads the development of Exploration Spacesuits for the Artemis program within the Flight Operations Directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.
Today, the 5th April 2026, the Artemis II Mission Team will enter the Moon’s orbit in the Orion spacecraft. If President Trump talks to NASA astronauts and asks, What does the US look like from space? I am sure the answer would be, From out here near the moon, international politics look so petty.
