The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) has stated that it will announce the companies it has chosen to develop the ‘human landing system’ (HLS) for its crewed Artemis programme on April 30. The HLS will be used to safely put astronauts on the surface of the Moon, including the first woman to land there. 

The announcement will be made in an online media conference. The Nasa team briefing the media will be headed by the agency’s Administrator, Jim Bridenstine.

The Artemis programme is Nasa’s new crewed lunar exploration programme, the long-awaited successor to the renowned Apollo programme of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The first mission in the current programme, Artemis I, will be an uncrewed flight test of Nasa’s new Space Launch System – the agency’s most powerful rocket ever – and the Orion spaceship. 

The first crewed flight will follow with Artemis II, which will orbit the Moon. The first new landing of astronauts on the Moon will be the objective of the Artemis III mission. 

Between Artemis II and Artemis III Nasa will send three Artemis Support Missions to lunar orbit. The first will place a high-power solar electric propulsion system module in orbit around the Moon. The second support mission will add a pressurised module to it, and the third will deliver the HLS to what will have become a small space station, designated Gateway, orbiting the Moon. 

On the Artemis III mission, whose crew will include a woman, the Orion spacecraft will dock with Gateway. The crew will then transfer to the HLS and land on the Moon, in the lunar south pole region. Nasa hopes that this landing will take place by 2024.

The Moon is not an end in itself. Artemis is intended, in due course, to lead to the landing of people on Mars.

The Artemis programme is named after the ancient Greek divinity. Artemis was the goddess of hunting, wild animals, wilderness, and chastity. She was the protectress of women during childbirth and the patron of girls and young women. Very appropriately, she was also the sister of the god Apollo. The ancient Romans called her Diana.