Artemis Base Camp: The First Steps

With the launch of Artemis I in November, 2022 the Artemis Program is off to the Moon; a half century after the last Apollo flight in 1972. Artemis I represents “the first step” of what will be a long journey, to arrive at that point in time, when we can say that there is a sustained human presence on the Moon. This will, over many years, establish an Artemis Base Camp for future missions of exploration and discovery.
The program starts off with several commercial robotic flights to search for the right place for humans to begin to rediscover the Moon; this time to the South Pole where previous flights have detected sources of water in the form of ice in craters that never see the light of day.
The book will describe the crewed and uncrewed flights necessary to first, build a small Gateway space station in a new and unique lunar orbit that will facilitate flights from there to the lunar surface. All the necessary elements, habitats and vehicles necessary to stay on the Moon for weeks at a time and in the Gateway for a month at a time, are described.
After Artemis I and II complete the checkouts of the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft, two of the four person crew of Artemis III will touch down on the lunar surface near the South Pole in 2025. This will begin the 21st Century exploration of the Moon and begin a series of subsequent flights to build a permanent presence in the form of the Artemis Base Camp. The lunar base is planned to evolve over decades. The NASA Program is supported by the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Japanese Space Agency.