Currently, the United States is organizing astronauts to conduct ground-based simulation training for lunar walking, the fifth in a series, in the San Francisco Volcanic Fields near Flagstaff, Arizona. The mission's comprehensive training program is scheduled to run from May 13 to May 20 in MTT and will feature U.S. astronauts Kate Rubins and Andre Douglas as simulated crew astronauts.
Since April 2022, NASA's team planning future lunar surface exploration and Artemis generation astronauts have conducted a series of moonwalk simulation exercises in preparation for the Artemis program to land people on the moon. This series of lunar surface walking simulation training consists of 4 simulated lunar surface walks and 6 advanced technology runs.
The mission team will continue to improve astronaut training, and crew astronauts will wear simulated extravehicular spacesuits to test the hardware, capabilities, and technologies needed to operate in a simulated lunar environment for Artemis 3 and beyond.
Previously, the Artemis 1 unmanned test mission was carried out in November-December 2022, in which the Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle sent the Orion manned spacecraft to Earth-Moon transfer orbit, which performed a flight around the Moon and returned to Earth. The mission, which lasted more than 25 days, fully tested the operation of the ship's arrow system for manned lunar exploration.
From left: Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Reed Wiseman
The Artemis 2 manned test mission is scheduled to take place in September 2025 and will fly around the moon with four astronauts: Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen. The mission will confirm that all of the spacecraft's systems are operating in a real-world deep space environment as designed by the crew, and will enable the crew to practice operations critical to the successful implementation of the Artemis 3 mission.
Artemis 3 will be launched no earlier than September 2026, aiming for the first manned lunar landing in a series of missions. Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts, including the first woman, the first person of color, and the first international cooperative astronaut, to explore the Moon for scientific discoveries, technological advancements, and economic benefits, and to lay the groundwork for a manned mission to Mars. Mission simulation on Earth helps prepare for the challenges of manned deep space exploration and travel to the farther reaches of space.
At present, the Artemis 2 mission series has been repeatedly postponed, and there are still great uncertainties in the implementation of the Artemis 2 plan in September 2025, not to mention the Artemis 3 mission, the latter "Starship" for astronauts to travel back and forth to the lunar surface is still being tested repeatedly, and there is still a long way to go before it can be successfully developed. Against the backdrop of NASA's political leadership, Artemis 3 will be implemented by 2030, with the goal of making the United States the first country to achieve a manned landing on the moon in the 21st century.
Author: Mulan Xingzhou