Howard Hu, head of the US agency’s Orion lunar spacecraft program, said humans could be active on the Moon for “duration” before 2030, with habitats to live in and rovers to support their work. “Certainly, in this decade, we’ll have people living for durations, depending on how long we’re on the surface. They’ll have habitats, they’ll have rovers on the ground,” he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg program on Sunday. “We’re going to send people to the surface and they’re going to live on that surface and do science,” he added. Hu took command of NASA’s deep space exploration spacecraft in February and on Sunday spoke as the 98-meter (322-foot) Artemis rocket moved toward the moon on its first uncrewed mission. The giant rocket, which houses the Orion spacecraft, blasted off Wednesday from Cape Canaveral in Florida after a series of delays due to technical problems and hurricanes. The spacecraft is carrying three fully-suited mannequins, which will record the stresses and strains of the Artemis 1 mission. The rocket is now about 83,000 miles (134,000 km) from the moon. “It’s the first step we’re taking in long-term deep space exploration, not just for the United States but for the world. I think this is a historic day for NASA, but it’s also a historic day for all the people who love human spaceflight and deep space exploration,” Hu said. “We’re going back to the moon. We are working on a sustainable program and this is the vehicle that will carry the people who will land us back on the moon,” he added. NASA astronaut Gene Cernan in a lunar rover during the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972 – the last time humans landed on the moon. Photo: NASA/Reuters The spacecraft will fly within 60 miles of the moon and continue for another 40,000 miles before turning back and aiming for a crash in the Pacific Ocean on December 11. The spacecraft will travel 1.3 meters miles on the 25-day mission, the farthest human craft ever built. When it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will be traveling at about 25,000 miles per hour, sending its heat shield temperature to about 2,800 C (5,000 F). It is expected to launch off the coast of San Diego. A successful mission will pave the way for subsequent Artemis 2 and 3 flights, both of which will send humans around the moon and back. The Artemis 3 mission, which may not launch until 2026, is expected to return humans to the surface of the Moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972. According to NASA’s plans, this mission will land the first woman to the moon, with a subsequent visit landing the first person of color on the lunar surface. The Artemis program, named after Apollo’s twin sister, also plans to build the Lunar Gateway, a space station where astronauts will live and work as they orbit the moon. “Forward motion is really on Mars,” Hu told the BBC. “This is a bigger step, a two-year trip, so it will be very important to learn beyond our Earth orbit.”
