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ITEM OF THE WEEK

THE ARTEMIS PROGRAM

Originally appeared January 21, 2026

Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan made the most recent footprint on the Moon as he prepared to climb the ladder into the Lunar Module. That was on December 14, 1972, over 54 years ago! NASA is now getting ready to return astronauts to the Moon via the Artemis Program. The first flight, a non-crewed test of the booster and capsule, has already been conducted. The second flight in the Program, Artemis II, is presently on the launch pad awaiting launch. It’s a crewed test of the system using a free-return loop around the Moon but not landing. Artemis III will be the first crewed lunar landing in five and a half decades! But our story begins in …

Delos

The Cyclades are a cluster of 200+ islands located in the Aegean Sea southeast of Athens. Their name comes from the fact that they lie in a circular pattern around one of the smaller, but most important, island of the group, Delos. Delos was the financial and religious center of Ancient Greece, and most importantly for us today, it was the birthplace of the twin gods, Apollo and Artemis. What better place to start an explanation of the follow-on NASA program Apollo then the program named for his twin?!

Today, the Cyclades are increasingly-popular for tourism. You’ve no doubt seen pictures of Santorini, the sea-eroded remnant of a giant volcanic caldera, with its picturesque cliffside whitewashed buildings with distinctive blue roofs, echoing the colors of the national flag of Greece. Back in the Jet Set days of Aristotle (Onassis) and Jackie O., the Cyclades island of Mykonos was the place to be. It’s still Party Central today, but more importantly for our story, Mykonos is the gateway to the (largely) uninhabited island of Delos. 

 

 

Delos is centrally located (top), covered with archeological sites (e.g. Temple of Isis, bottom).

The goddess Artemis was the child of Zeus and a Titan, Leto. Hera, always suspicious of her husband’s philandering ways, pursued the pregnant Leto, who found safe refuge on Delos. Artemis was born before her twin, and assisted Leto in his birth. As she grew up, she became the goddess of the wilderness, wild animals, and hunting, and also was known as the goddess of childbirth and the protector of young girls. When the Romans overprinted Greek mythology with their own, Artemis became known as Diana.

Artemis has several modern astronomical connections. She became associated with Selene, the goddess of the Moon, in later mythological times. She had several handmaidens; one of them, Callisto, was seduced by Zeus. The resulting pregnancy angered Artemis, who turned Callisto and her newborn son, Arcas, into bears and exiled her to the forest. Zeus responded by placing them in the sky; we know her now as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, with our word “arctic” coming from the boy’s name and the constellation’s most northerly location. Galileo named one of the Jupiter moons he discovered for her as well. Artemis was a chaste goddess, but she was not opposed to having male companions, especially when hunting. One of her favorites caused her brother, Apollo, to be jealous. Tricky Apollo fooled Artemis into killing Orion with a long-distance arrow shot. In her grief, she placed the great hunter in the sky.

The astronomical pedigree of Artemis includes the fact that not only was she the daughter of Zeus (Jupiter), that made her the granddaughter of Kronos (aka Saturn) and the great-granddaughter of Ouranos (Uranus).

Ancient mythology is quite complex, and sometimes different versions are contradictory. Some have Apollo and Artemis as being married, not twins, with Apollo being destructive and Artemis being merciful to humans. She had no interest in music or poetry, while he invented the lyre (also in the sky as the constellation Lyra). One story line has Artemis being born of Demeter, aka Ceres, goddess of the harvest, rather than Leto. Another, via Egypt, holds that Artemis was the daughter of Dionysus and Isis (which might explain the temple name on Delos!). Yet another has Artemis being born on Crete, and another has her birthplace as the grove of Ortygia, near the city of Ephesus, where there is now (the ruins of) a great temple to her.

Regardless of the details, “Artemis” is a great name for NASA’s next lunar program (and Jim West’s sidekick, but that’s another story)!

Artemis Program’s Legal Setting

Space Law: Open Skies Treaty: The Cold War began heating up when the USSR demonstrated that it, too, and potent nuclear weapons. By 1955, both the USA and the USSR realized that the other would soon have the ability to put observation satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). Both sides were very interested in keeping track of the other’s activities and capabilities, so President Eisenhower proposed that the two nations adopt an “Open Skies” agreement, which would allow for satellite overflights and not consider them “enemy espionage.” The USSR immediately rejected the proposal, and aggressively responded to any incursions into “Soviet airspace.” Some “incursions” they could and did do something about (Francis Gary Power’s U-2, for example). The USA tried other means of aerial reconnaissance, such as trying to float high-altitude balloons with sensors over the USSR, launching in Europe and recovering them over the Pacific. Little came of that effort, except for one wayward test balloon launched from Alamogordo which crashed near Roswell, starting the town’s now primary source of revenue). But satellites in LEO were out of reach. Both sides tacitly accepted their reality.

The Open Skies Treaty concept was tried again in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush. Initial negotiations between NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries began in 1990 in Ottawa. Subsequent conferences in Budapest, Vienna, and Helsinki resulted in the adoption of the Open Skies Treaty between the two superpowers and 21 other countries. The Treaty did not take effect until 2002, after which a number of approved aerial overflights were conducted (and both nation’s LEO satellites continued their observations). The Treaty started breaking down in 2016, when Turkey refused a USSR overflight, which prompted a USSR refusal of a USA overflight of Soviet Georgia soon thereafter and a joint USA/Canada overflight of central Russia in 2019. In May, 2020, President Trump announced the USA’s intent to withdraw from the Treaty within six months and did so on November 20 of that year. The Russians followed suit on June 7, 2021. But he Open Skies Treaty dealt with aerial overflights, not reconnaissance involving observations from LEO.

Space Law: The Outer Space Treaty: Reconnaissance from above was one thing, militarization of LEO was quite another. Both superpowers did not want nuclear weapons in LEO, nor did any member of the United Nations. This was an ideal job for the United Nations to handle, and they organization brokered a deal with the USA, USSR, and the United Kingdom. Called the Outer Space Treaty, it went into effect on October 10, 1967 (“Outer Space” meaning Earth orbit, on Solar System planets and moons, and interplanetary Space). Its key provisions are:

As of October, 2025, 115 other countries had joined the three initial countries as parties to the Treaty. Another 20 countries are “signatories” to the Treaty, ratifying it after the fact. Fifty-seven U.N. Member States have not ratified the Treaty; most of them are the “Flyspeckistans” of the world, not likely to be Space-faring any time soon.

The Outer Space Treaty is obviously a great idea, one that benefits all Humanity. However, some of its provisions would be difficult to enforce, and there is some mutually-exclusivity involved, too. For example, “avoiding harmful contamination” while being “free for exploration” are clearly in conflict, especially for smaller bodies such as the Moon where rocket exhaust gases affect the extremely tenuous lunar exosphere. Damage caused by non-governmental entities is problematic, too, just ask the folks enduring a rain of SpaceX debris in the Caribbean. And how can the launch of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons be adequately prevented?

Space Law: The Artemis Accords

“The Artemis Accords are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, outlining the vision and principles for a safe, transparent environment that facilitates exploration, science, and commercial activities for all of humanity to enjoy. To date, 56 countries have joined the accords and are committed to establishing a peaceful, prosperous future in space. More countries will sign the Artemis Accords in the months and years ahead to ensure the entire world can benefit from our journey of exploration and discovery.” [source: https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis/#accords]

Notable among the non-signatories are China, North Korea, and Russia and its satellites….

More information about the Artemis Accords can be found here: https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords.

The Artemis Program

First, some NASA-ese:

  1. Program—Programs are a strategic investment by Mission Directorates or mission support offices with a defined architecture and/or technical approach, requirements, funding level, and a management structure that initiates and directs one or more projects. A program implements a strategic direction that the Agency has identified as needed to accomplish Agency goals and objectives.
  2. Project—Space flight projects are a specific investment identified in a Program Plan having defined requirements, a life-cycle cost, a beginning, and an end. A project also has a management structure and may have interfaces to other projects, agencies, and international partners. A project yields new or revised products that directly address NASA’s strategic goals.

Goals of the Artemis Program

The Goal of the Artemis Program is to “the Moon for scientific discovery, technology advancement, and to learn how to live and work on another world as we prepare for human missions to Mars. We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon.”

Artemis Components

The Artemis spacecraft comprises four components: the Space Launch System rocket (SLS),the Orion capsule housing the crew, the Human Landing System (HLS), and the Lunar Gateway station.

Artemis Mission Plan

Ten SLS launches are on the longer-range program plans. Artemis I has already flown (see below). Artemis II is, at the time of this writing, presently sitting on the launch pad ready for a launch window in February (see farther below). The remaining eight planned launches and their status follows.

Artemis III: If the Artemis II mission is successful, Artemis III will be the first USA lunar landing attempt since 1972. Three successful support missions will need to be flown prior to the launch of Artemis III to be successful. The first will test a high-power Solar Electric Propulsion system, the second will deliver the first pressurized module of the Gateway Space Station to lunar orbit, and the third will deliver the Human Landing System spacecraft to Gateway. See below:

After Artemis II and Before Artemis III

Support Mission #1 : Check out the Orion capsule and test the high-power Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP), needed for getting heavy loads to/from Lunar Gateway. Launched without crew on November 16,2022, returned to Earth on December 11. 

Support Mission #2: Deliver the first pressurized module as nucleus of the Lunar Gateway.

Support Mission #3: Deliver the Human Landing System to Gateway.

Artemis I Mission: was the first complete test flight of the SLS booster and did not carry a crew.This was the first time the entire SLS/Orion system flew. The capsule performed pretty well, but its heat shield was damaged more than expected. This test used a steeper entry path as a stress test for the heat shield. Tweaks in the ablative material and a less-stressful reentry path should make things OK. For more info on the problem and fix, see: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/nasa-identifies-cause-of-artemis-i-orion-heat-shield-char-loss.

shield is particularly needed because of the high speed of the Orion capsule as it returns to Earth. Apollo Command Modules had to enter the atmosphere at a very precise angle; too steep and the capsule would burn up, too shallow the capsule would skip across the upper atmosphere, eventually returning to Earth but long after the consumables aboard the CM were expended (no Service Module at that point). In Artemis missions, skipping off the upper atmosphere is a desired tactic, as it slows the capsule more gradually (cooler).

Artemis II Status

The mission is to test out Orion systems in LEO, then put the spacecraft into a free-return trajectory (no additional engine burns needed to get home). This is the same trajectory used by Apollo 13 after they had a problem. 

This was another important test of the SLS and Orion capsule, which turned out to be quite valuable in the case of its heat shield, and also valuable to confirm that the other spacecraft systems were OK.

Artemis II rolled out of the VAB a few days before this writing. The crawl to the launch pad was uneventful. There are a number of upcoming launch windows, the first running February 6-11. Hopefully unneeded, the second window is on February 28 - March 13, and the third is March 27 – April 10.

Here’s hoping everything works well!

FUTURE ARTEMIS MISSION PLANS

There are a planned total of ten total flights remaining in the basic Artemis plan. Here’s what the other eight will be doing in the coming years.

ARTEMIS Flight 3 is the return to the Moon for American astronauts; the last human footprint was made on the Moon 64 years ago. The SEP will be operational, the initial module of the Gateway will be in orbit around one of the Mars Lagrange points, and the Human Landing System will be in place and operational. The astronauts will rendezvous with the Gateway, and two would enter through it to the HLS, while two astronauts would remain behind. The HLS would then take the two astronauts to the lunar surface, near the lunar south pole. They will perform two EVAs on the surface before lifting off to return to Gateway. From there, the astronauts would return to Earth in the Orion capsule. Launch is scheduled to be no earlier than mid-2027.

ARTEMIS Flight 4 is planned to be more-or-less a repeat of Flight 3, in terms of visiting the lunar surface. Much of the effort will be to beef up the Gateway infrastructure. The Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO), will be joined and sent to the Gateway via a Falcon Heavy booster using the SEP for low levels of continuing thrust and some gravity assists. The Artemis IV crew will carry up the International Habitation module (I-Hab), provided by ESA with an assist to JAXA. Two SpaceX rockets will bring an improved HLS and the Dragon XL Logistics Module. Four astronauts will be involved with this mission; two of them will use the HLS to explore the lunar surface. Projected launch date: 2028. Details: https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasas-artemis-iv-building-first-lunar-space-station

ARTEMIS Flight 5 will take a crew of four to the Gateway along with three important pieces of equipment: ESA’s ESPRIT refueling and communications module, a robot arm akin to Canadarm on the ISS, and NASA’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle. The LTV has its own landing system, and the HLS will land nearby. The two astronauts descending via the HLS will then rove the landing area. The projected launch date is no earlier than March, 2030.

ARTEMIS Flight 6 involves four astronauts, the installation of the Crew and Science Airlock Module (provided by the Emirates and built at their Mohammad bin Rashid Space Centre), and the fourth crewed lunar landing. The projected launch date is no earlier than March, 2031.

ARTEMIS Flight 7 has as its main goals the fifth crewed lunar landing and to with them deliver the Lunar Cruiser, a much larger rover, built by JAXA and Toyota. It will be capable of travel much farther on the lunar surface on extended multi-week journeys. The projected launch date is no earlier than March, 2032.

ARTEMIS Flight 8 will deliver two astronauts and supplies, and expand the Artemis Base Camp with the planned Foundational Surface Habitat. The projected launch date is no earlier than March, 2033.

ARTEMIS Flight 9 is planned as a two-part mission, one delivering crew to the lunar surface and the other delivering supplies. The projected launch date is no earlier than March, 2034.

ARTEMIS Flight 10, the last of the planned series, will carry another crew and additional supplies to the surface, allowing the astronauts to remain longer on the lunar surface than before.

AND ON TO MARS

Going back to the Moon will allow NASA and its partners hone their skills at exploring and living in alien environments, all with an eye toward using those skills to take astronauts to Mars. 

“Mars remains our horizon goal for human exploration because it is one of the only other places we know where life may have existed in the solar system. What we learn about the Red Planet will tell us more about our Earth’s past and future, and may help answer whether life exists beyond our home planet. Like the Moon, Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and a driver of technologies that will enable humans to travel and explore far from Earth.” [source]

But that’s another story!

REFERENCES

The Cyclades: https://www.touropia.com/cyclades-islands

Delos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delos

Artemis (goddess): https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Artemis.html

Artemis (goddess): https://www.britannica.com/topic/Artemis-Greek-goddess

Artemis (goddess): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis

Open Skies Treaty: https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/IN/PDF/IN10502/IN10502.7.pdf

Outer Space Treaty : https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/introouterspacetreaty.html

Outer Space Treaty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty