As part of the new Artemis program, they also want to enable long-term housing for researchers.
NASA’s latest announcement revealed that the agency would team up with SpaceX and Blue Origin to build a permanent base for long-term habitation on the moon. In any case, the two companies are already working together with the US space agency to build landing systems that could be used to more easily bring people to the surface of the celestial body that accompanies our planet. This time, they are planning a system that could accommodate large loads.
The goal would be for NASA to be able to land the lunar vehicle designed by the Japanese space agency (JAXA) that can also be used as a residence in 2032. This would be used during the Artemis 7 program and other missions.
Later, this would be followed by Blue Origin’s unit, which would allow them to send a permanent residence, i.e., a lunar base, to the moon in 2033. Of course, this is currently only the long-term schedule. For now, NASA is still preparing for the Artemis 2 mission, which is due in 2025. Four astronauts will be sent into space, but they will not land on the moon. We will have to wait for that new historical moment until 2026, when the Artemis 3 mission will be carried out. NASA would therefore like to build a base step by step, which it has a good chance of doing according to current estimates.
Source: www.pcwplus.hu