Transportation Secretary and acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy told Fox Business that the United States intends to “stay” on the moon during a discussion regarding the program’s manned Artemis launches.
“So listen, this is exciting. This is the first time we’re going back to the moon, you know, since the 70s,” Duffy said. “We’re not going to land this time, we’re going to go out around the moon and come back. And by the way, our four person crew is amazing.”
He added that what is learned on Artemis II will “bring us to Artemis III, where we’re going to land back on the moon.”
“And this time, when we go back to the moon, we’re going to stay, we’re going to set up a base,” Duffy explained, noting the “knowledge” gleaned from the trip will “bring us, I think, to Mars as well.”
According to NASA, the Artemis III will “build on the crewed Artemis II flight test, adding new capabilities with the human landing system and advanced spacesuits to send the first humans to explore the lunar South Pole region.”
“Over the course of about 30 days, the Artemis III astronauts will travel to lunar orbit, where two crew members will descend to the surface and spend approximately a week near the South Pole of the Moon conducting new science before returning to lunar orbit to join their crew for the journey back to Earth,” NASA’s mission overview explains.
Duffy has also unveiled plans to develop a nuclear reactor on the moon.
“We’re in a race to the moon, in a race with China to the moon. And to have a base on the moon, we need energy,” Duffy told reporters in August, as per The Hill. “And some of the key locations on the moon, we’re going to get solar power, but this fission technology is critically important, and so we’ve spent hundreds of million [of] dollars studying.”
