NASA's New Moon Base Plan Explains Why It's Going Back To The Moon

Why is NASA going back to the moon? Although this week's Artemis 2 mission has seen see four astronauts launch successfully to fly around the moon -- for the first time in 53 years -- the real deal will occur in 2028, when two astronauts land at the lunar South Pole. However, there is no repeat of Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 between 1969 and 1972. While in the 1960s it was the Cold War with the Soviet Union driving U.S. ambitions in space, this time it's China, which has already landed its Chang'e rovers on the lunar surface and has promised to land its "taikonauts" by 2030 and build a moon base near the lunar south pole by 2035. The U.S. has now committed to building a moon base before China does -- and Artemis 2 can be seen as the first step. Permanent Presence Despite adding to the total of 12 moonwalkers, the Artemis astronauts have another plan in mind -- a permanent presence. Although NASA's plans to build a moon base are hardly new, they were given a new emphasis on March 24 when NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced the space agency's intention to build a moon base and "establish an enduring presence" on the lunar surface. Even though he called it "near-impossible," he said that "returning to the moon and building a base will seem pale in comparison to what we will be capable of accomplishing in the years ahead." There are metals too, like iron and titanium, and also helium, which is used in everything from superconductors to medical equipment. Renewed Push Central to NASA's plan is an accelerated timeline for its Artemis missions. After Artemis II comes Artemis III, now scheduled for 2027 and reduced from a moon landing to a test mission, with critical systems tested in Earth orbit ahead of a lunar landing with Artemis IV in 2028. After that, NASA says, it will seek to land astronauts on the moon every six months, but crucially, using not its own Space Launch System rocket, but commercial reusable rockets -- which likely means Blue Origin and SpaceX. Three-Phase Moon Base With the path to the lunar surface confirmed, plans were also set for a three-phase lunar base. The first phase, "Build, Test, Learn," focuses on robotic missions, technology demonstrations and infrastructure testing through programs like Commercial Lunar Payload Services. CLPS has already seen commercial robotic landers land on the moon -- most recently, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost in March 2025. The second phase will introduce semi-habitable systems and regular astronaut operations, with the final phase being advanced habitats and logistics systems -- and a continuous human presence on the moon. Nuclear Mission To The Moon NASA also announced plans to build and launch Space Reactor-1 Freedom, a nuclear-powered spacecraft, to Mars by 2028. The mission will demonstrate nuclear electric propulsion, a capability expected to revolutionize deep-space travel by enabling faster, more efficient missions beyond Jupiter. "After decades of study and millions spent on concepts that have never left Earth, America will finally get underway on nuclear power in space," said Isaacman. However, the Mars mission itself looks set to be an exciting one, with three autonomous helicopters deployed to map terrain, analyze slopes and hazards and search for subsurface water ice. The goal is to identify safe and resource-rich landing sites for future human missions. Goodbye, Lunar Gateway Part of the original Artemis Program to land on the moon was Lunar Gateway, an orbiting station that astronauts would build and use to descend to the lunar surface. This, the first international space station around the moon, will now not proceed. That leaves European space industry contractors -- among them Thales Alenia Space, Airbus, Redwire, and Beyond Gravity -- with uncertainty surrounding contracts, reports Payload Space, though congressional approval is still required. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.