After Artemis launch, NASA expects humans to live and do science on Moon this decade

The world has achieved several new feats in space exploration in the recent decade. After the successful launch of NASA’s Artemis, an official from the US space agency claimed that he 'expects humans to live on Moon this decade'. Speaking to BBC on Sunday, Howard Hu who heads the Orion Lunar Spacecraft Programme for NASA added that “habitats would be needed to support scientific missions.” Hu called the launch of the Artemis rocket which carries the Orion capsule, a “historic day for human space flight.” 

The Wednesday launch came after two previous launch attempts in the month of August and September. The two prior attempts were aborted during the countdown because of some technical issues. Calling it the first step, Hu told BBC, “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 also hoped for humans to go back to the moon, he said, “I mean, we are going back to the Moon, we're working towards a sustainable program and this is the vehicle that will carry the people that will land us back on the Moon again."

Hu asserted, that if everything goes well, the next step of the operation would be to go with a crew which will be followed by a third step, where astronauts would land on the moon 50 years after the launch of Apollo 17 in December 1972. The Orion capsule is all set to get back to Earth on December 11. 

NASA official was 'enamoured by the videos from space'

On, Wednesday the 100m tall Artemis rocket was launched from the Kennedy Space Center as a part of NASA’s endeavour to take the Astronauts back to the moon. Hu talked about how he was feeling like an “anxious parent” while watching the whole mission being played out on Earth, adding that he was enamoured by the visuals NASA was receiving from space and commented, “Wow, we are headed back to the Moon".

Speaking on the relevance of the mission, he said, "A large part of the reason for going back to the moon is to discover whether there is water on the Moon’s south pole", adding, “that it could have the potential to be converted to provide fuel for craft going deeper into space… to Mars for example.” When it comes to the plan of sending people to the Moon's surface, Hu said, "We're going to be sending people down to the surface and they're going to be living on that surface and doing science," adding, “Artemis missions enable us to have a sustainable platform and transportation system that allows us to learn how to operate in that deep space environment."