NASA is planning to send the Artemis mission to the Moon in 2024, with the first woman and the next man to travel to our satellite after almost fifty years, after receiving an increase in its budget by the US government.
On Monday, May 13th, US President Donald Trump announced an injection of an additional $1.6 billion to the space agency, which boosts its program of exploration of the Moon and Mars. “So that we can return to Space in a BIG WAY!!”, Trump posted on his Twitter account.
NASA has reported that the name of the mission Artemis refers to the goddess of the Moon and the twin sister of Apollo of Greek mythology and is a clear nod to the Apollo 11 mission that brought the first men on the Moon on 20 July 1969.
NASA is planning to send the first woman to the Moon in 2024
Only 12 people have ever walked on the lunar surface and they have all been American males. The first was Neil Armstrong and the last Eugene Cernan in 1972. Now, NASA wants to send in its moon ‘re-conquest’ a woman, for the first time in history.
“This program is going to allow a new generation of girls, like my daughter, to see themselves in a way that they would not see otherwise,” says NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine in a video message to the employees of the agency.
Why going back to the Moon? “We’re back to stay,” NASA has reported through its YouTube channel. The agency hopes that its participation in the exploration of the Moon will help the US to establish itself strategically in the space and grow its international collaborations. Among its main objectives, NASA emphasizes that it wants to return to the Moon to increase its knowledge and prepare for future missions to Mars.
