Artemis III Planners Narrow 2025 Human Landing To 13 Sites At Moon's South Pole - NASA

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2022) US planners have selected a short list of 13 possible sites for the first Artemis manned landed mission projected for 2025 to explore the Moon's South Pole, NASA officials told a press conference.

"Selecting these regions means we are one giant leap closer to returning humans to the Moon for the first time since Apollo," NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for the Artemis Campaign Development Division Mark Kirasich said on Friday. "When we do, it will be unlike any mission that's come before as astronauts venture into dark areas previously unexplored by humans and lay the groundwork for future long-term stays."

NASA identified the possible regions where Artemis III, carrying the first woman astronaut and probably the first person of color to walk on the Moon as: Faustini Rim A, a peak near Shackleton crater, a connecting ridge and its extension, two de Gerlache Rims, the de Gerlache-Kocher Massif, Haworth and the Malapert Massif.

The other locations were the Leibnitz Beta Plateau, the n to wo Nobile Rims and the Amundsen Rim, NASA officials said.

"It's a new part of the Moon we have never explored. It has really extreme temperatures where the Sun has not reached for billions of years," NASA Artemis lunar science lead planetary scientist Sarah Noble said.

The mission's astronauts would stay on the Moon and explore the area for six and a half days before starting their return journey to Earth.