Nine options

“Artemis 3”: NASA set lunar landing sites

(Bild: NASA)

In around two years' time, the US space agency NASA wants to land humans on the moon again. It has now narrowed down the list of possible landing sites and selected nine possible locations.

The potential landing sites would all be in the region of the south pole of the Earth's satellite, where astronauts have never been before, NASA announced on its website on Monday.

"The south pole of the moon is a completely different environment than where we landed during the Apollo missions," said NASA researcher Sarah Noble. "It gives us access to some of the oldest regions of the moon, as well as cold, shadowed regions that could contain water and other components. Any of these landing sites would allow us to do great research and make new discoveries."

Permanent moon base planned
With the "Artemis" program, named after the Greek goddess of the moon, NASA wants to put humans back on the moon - including the first non-white human and the first woman. The long-term goal of "Artemis" is to establish a permanent lunar base as a foundation for missions to Mars.

However, NASA had to postpone the manned moon orbit "Artemis 2", originally planned for November 2024, to September 2025 due to problems with the rocket and spacecraft, and the planned manned moon landing "Artemis 3" to September 2026.

"Apollo 17" commander Eugene Cernan on the moon on December 12, 1972

(Bild: NASA)

There is competition from China, which wants to put humans on the moon by 2030. The last time humans were on the moon was in 1972 as part of the Apollo 17 mission (pictured above).