NASA launched its long-awaited Artemis 1 flight last week, the first of several missions to establish a human presence around and on the moon. But even though it’s just the beginning of this extended mission, one official says significant steps could be taken sooner rather quickly. The Program Manager of the Orion spacecraft onboard the Artemis 1 flight, Howard Hu, said that the agency plans to have humans living on the moon sooner rather than later.
“Certainly, in this decade, we’re going to have people living on the moon,” he said. “The durations, you know, depend on how long we’ll be on the surface. They’ll be living and have habitats and rovers on the ground. So, not only can we work in delivering people to the moon, getting people down to the moon’s surface, they still have to have the infrastructure.”
But ultimately, he added, “it’s more than living – it’s really about science.” “We’re going to send people down to the surface, and they’re going to be living on that surface and doing science,” he explained.
