Artemis is NASA's new lunar exploration program. Through the Artemis program, NASA will use new technology to study the Moon in new and better ways, and prepare for human missions to Mars.
NASA's new rocket will carry the Orion spacecraft to lunar orbit. Then, astronauts will dock(对接) Orion at a small spaceship called Gateway, from where the crew will take trips to the lunar surface in a new human landing system, and then return to Gateway. The crew will return to the Earth aboard Orion. NASA will test the rocket and spacecraft in flight, and then send a crew for a test flight:
Artemis 1 will be a test flight of the SLS rocket with the Orion spacecraft and with no crew.
Artemis 2 will launch the SLS rocket and Orion with a crew, which will fly past the Moon, then circle it and return to the Earth. This trip will be the farthest one any human has experienced in space.
Artemis 3 will send a crew, including the first woman astronaut and a black astronaut, to the Moon by 2024. The Artemis 3 crew will visit the Moon's South Pole. No one has ever been there.
At the Moon, astronauts will:
Search for the Moon's water and use it.
Learn how to live and work on the surface of another celestial body (天体) where astronauts are just three days' flight from home.
Test the technologies we need before sending astronauts on missions to Mars, which can take an up-to-three-year round trip.
The Moon is a good place to learn new science. NASA will learn more about the Moon, the Earth and even the Sun. The Moon is a "test bed" for Mars. The Moon is a place to show that astronauts will one day be able to work away from the Earth on Mars for long periods of time.
