NASA Unveils Moon Base Plans with Landers, Buggies, and Drones

For Artemis III, another team of astronauts will practice docking NASA’s Orion capsule in orbit around Earth with the lunar landers being developed for crews by Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX. NASA is targeting Artemis III for mid-2027, with a landing by two astronauts following as soon as 2028.

Leadership Vision and Timeline

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced the lunar plans at a press conference. “Amerika kehrt zum Mond zurück – und dieses Mal, um zu bleiben,” Isaacman said, which translates to “America is returning to the Moon — and this time, to stay.”

He added: “For those waiting patiently, the grand return is close at hand and we will not slow down.” Isaacman overhauled NASA’s lunar plans only a few months ago and announced the goal of a permanent human presence on the Moon.

The moon base program executive, Carlos Garcia-Galan, outlined the longer-term vision. “Then we’ll be able to say, ‘Hey, we’re permanently here and we’re not giving it up,’” he said. Garcia-Galan envisions a moon base sprawling over hundreds of square miles, with a perimeter marked by drones, dubbed MoonFall, stationed at the corners.

The goal of the moon base is to encourage a lunar economy while conducting scientific research and laying the foundation for a Mars expedition, according to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “We are really just getting started,” he said.

Phased Approach and Global Context

The moon base’s second phase, from 2029 into the early 2030s, will start building up the permanent infrastructure, including a power grid. The base is expected to be ready to support astronauts for extended periods in specialized permanent habitats sometime in the 2030s, during the third phase.

Isaacman also noted that the territory markers are meant to be respectful of other countries’ spacecraft and equipment that might be nearby. The plan unfolds amid a renewed global interest in lunar exploration; China aims to land humans on the Moon by 2030, and Russia also has plans to bring humans to the Moon.

Three uncrewed missions to the Moon are planned for this year alone, with the European Space Agency (ESA) participating in the third. The announcement comes less than two months after the Artemis II mission’s lunar flyaround, which brought humans near the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years.