When humans return to the moon, they’ll likely visit one of these thirteen regions near the moon’s south pole
The agency announced 13 potential landing regions for its Artemis 3 mission during a news conference held on Friday . All the candidates are clustered near the south pole of the moon, an area of key scientific and exploration interest alike.
The selected regions are: Faustini Rim A, Peak Near Shackleton, Connecting Ridge, Connecting Ridge Extension, two regions on the rim of de Gerlache Crater, de Gerlache-Kocher Massif, Haworth, Malapert Massif, Leibnitz Beta Plateau, two regions on the rim of Nobile Crater and Amundsen Rim. "This will be the first time we will land a human lander at the south pole, it will be the first landing of the Starship, so we have to pay close attention to the engineering and safety constraints of the mission and the vehicle," Kirasich said.
But NASA won't be relying on any scouts for additional information. The agency's venerable Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has already provided the data that mission personnel need, according to Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist at NASA. In fact, he said that at this point in LRO's mission, the spacecraft is in an orbit from which it can't observe these regions at all.
"This is a new part of the moon, it's a place that we've never explored," Noble said. "All six Apollo sites were in sort of the central part of the near side, and now we're going someplace completely different, with different and ancient geologic terrains." Today's announcement comes just over a week before the targeted launch of Artemis 1, an uncrewed test flight for NASA's lunar exploration program. That mission's rocket stack is now on the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, counting down to liftoff on Aug. 29.
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