NASA unveils list of astronaut landing sites on the Moon in 2025

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Friday announced which areas of the South Pole of the Moon in 2025 will land astronauts as part of the US lunar program “Artemis”.

Possible landing sites for the Starship HLS rocket are, in particular, the following areas: the hill near the Shackleton crater, the Malapert massif, the de Gerlach-Kocher massif, the Leibniz Beta plateau, the edge of the Faustini crater, the edge of the Amundsen crater, the ridge connecting the Shackleton and de Gerlach craters, two rims of De Gerlach crater, Haworth crater, rims of Nobile crater. There are 13 such regions in total.

According to NASA, each of them has an area of ​​about 15×15 km. All of them are located within 6 degrees of latitude from the South Pole of the Moon and have different geological features. The Starship HLS rocket for landing astronauts will be able to land on one of them.

To select landing sites, NASA scientists and engineers analyzed data on the South Pole obtained by the Lunar Reconnaissance Oribter orbiter, as well as scientific publications accumulated over decades.

The criteria necessary for a safe landing were taken into account: terrain, illumination, the ability to communicate with the Earth, the capabilities of the launch vehicle, the space transport vehicle, and the modification of the Starship rocket.

Scientists have chosen the South Pole of the Moon because of the presence of areas of eternal shadow on it. Researchers believe that these areas have rich resource deposits and unexplored topography.

The launch of the Artemild mission, during which the Americans will land on the surface of the moon for the first time since 1972, is scheduled for 2025. According to the plan, this will happen like this: the Orion spacecraft with astronauts on board will be launched using the Space Launch System launch vehicle. After separating from the launch vehicle, the ship must enter lunar orbit and there dock with the SpaceX Starship HLS rocket.

Two astronauts will board the rocket and land on the moon, as close as possible to the region of eternal shadow.

They will go to the surface of the planet, collect soil samples and conduct their scientific analysis in order to obtain data on subsurface ice – depth from occurrence, distribution and composition.

The mission of the astronauts on the moon will last 6.5 days.