If you’ve been paying any attention to the news lately, you might have heard of the recent success of NASA’s mission called Artemis Two. But, with all the excitement it can be hard to understand how exactly this mission is helping humanity to colonize the moon. Well, strap in my friends, because I’m here to answer any and all questions about Artemis Two!
What is Artemis Two?
Artemis Two is actually one of a series of five missions called the Artemis missions by NASA to establish a permanent base on the moon. The goal of missions is to use NASA’s new SLS, (Space Launch System) paired with a shuttle called the Orion, to send astronauts and cargo to the moon in order to establish a base. Artemis Two was a mission to see if the SLS and Orion capsule could send a crew of astronauts around the moon and return them to Earth safely. The mission followed Artemis One, which sent the Orion capsule using the SLS around the moon, but without a crew.
How is this different from past lunar missions?
In past lunar missions, such as Apollo 11, the rocket used to launch the astronauts into space was called a Saturn V. The Saturn Vs took about 52 billion dollars to construct and launch. In comparison, the new SLS that can accomplish the exact same thing, but only costs around 27 billion dollars to construct and launch, around half the cost of Saturn V. Additionally, in terms of pure trust capacity the SLS is the most powerful rocket to ever exist! Finally, unlike the Apollo 11 mission, the Orion capsule is designed for much more sustained space exploration, which could last up to a week, rather than the 21 hours the Apollo 11 crew spent on the moon.
What does this mean for future exploration?
In the future, Artemis Three will test compatibility between the Orion capsule and the private spacecraft needed to actually land astronauts on the moon; then, Artemis Four in 2028 is scheduled to be an actual moon landing where astronauts will stay on the moon for about a week before returning to Earth; the final mission is Artemis Five, when NASA plans to land on the moon and begin building their permanent moon base. After the Artemis missions conclude, NASA plans to launch a new mission using the SLS once a year until moon colonization evolves further!
Fun ACC Connection!
So, what does this all have to do with Arlington Tech? Well, in 2024 NASA hosted an App Development Challenge where they tasked middle and high schoolers with assisting the Artemis Two mission by having them code a visualization model of the south pole of the moon as a sort of map to assist with exploration! In response to this, a group of students at Arlington Tech (see photo) stepped up to the challenge and created maps that highlighted possible locations for technology that could communicate back with Earth. They even ended up presenting their work at Pycon 2025, the largest annual convention for Python programmers! Read more about their work here!
Sources:
https://www.nasa.gov/history/apollo-11-mission-overview/
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/orion-spacecraft/orion-overview/
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-iv/
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-i/
https://www.nasa.gov/reference/space-launch-system/
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/amf-jsc2026e022293/
https://stemgateway.nasa.gov/public/s/course-offering/a0B3d000001M3dy/adc-2024
