NASA's Artemis Program: U.S. Set to Achieve Historic Milestone in Cislunar Space

Near-term Cislunar trends

Soon, the United States will achieve a key milestone with the NASA Artemis program, which will send the first human-rated spacecraft to Cislunar space since 1972. Robotic exploration of Cislunar space is also growing more robust, with many orbital cubesats and the first U.S. robotic Lunar landers since the Apollo era joining a host of other global probes and missions[3] operating in Cislunar space. This increase in activity spans a range of applications for science (including Lunar mapping and surveying from orbit, surface geophysical investigations, and radio astronomy observations), in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), and other exploration and development activities. To support these planned and future Cislunar activities, basic infrastructure is needed, including communications, PNT, transportation, and radio frequency spectrum management.

Near-term Cislunar enabling capabilities will need to be transparent, open, interoperable,[4] and scalable to advance a Cislunar ecosystem that is sustainable for years to come. Further, these activities must be supported by a diverse science and technology workforce equipped to tackle challenges associated with this still largely unexplored domain.

[3] As one example, NASA is working with several U.S. companies to deliver science and technology to the Lunar surface through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Under Artemis, commercial deliveries beginning in 2022 will perform science experiments, test technologies, and demonstrate capabilities to help NASA explore the Moon and prepare for human missions.

[4] For information systems, interoperability is the capability of different systems or networks to communicate and exchange information with each other.