According to a NASA official, humans will be able to live and work on the Moon by the year 2030.

“We’re going to be sending people down to the surface and they’re going to be living on that surface and doing science,” said Howard Hu, who leads the Orion lunar spacecraft program for NASA, the BBC reported Sunday

The Orion spacecraft was successfully launched by NASA’s powerful new Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket last week, and is now traveling in the direction of the Moon.

The launch, which was frequently postponed, began NASA’s Artemis missions, marking the first significant step toward sending people back to the Moon in 50 years.

This time, Orion is unmanned in order to test its capability to deliver a capsule to the Moon and back. The astronauts are anticipated to go with it the following time when it orbits the celestial body.

If all goes according to plan, the same spacecraft might subsequently be used to land people, including the first female astronaut, on the Moon’s surface for the first time since 1972.

The team will now land close to the south pole of the Moon, where they will spend around a week searching for evidence of water. If the priceless liquid is discovered, it may be utilized as rocket fuel to send people to Mars.

This would imply that permanent human settlements would be required to sustain mining and research.

“It’s the first step we’re taking to long-term deep space exploration, for not just the United States but for the world,” Hu told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Orion was a success and it is now on the way back to Earth.

Reference(s): 

BBC