KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Artemis I isn’t just a mission to orbit the moon. It’s the beginning of a new era for NASA that promises to not just return humans to the lunar surface, but to press on to Mars.
“We are explorers and adventurers as a species,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson at a news conference Saturday. “That basically is the fulfillment of our destiny. But in that exploration, we’re going to learn new things and develop new things that are going to improve ― just as it’s been under our space program — our lives here on Earth.”
That’s the high-minded end goal of the Artemis program, originally announced by President Obama in 2012, but pushed forward by both President Trump and Biden, on a timeline that will last through at least the next five presidential terms with humans walking on Mars by 2040 if not earlier, Nelson said.
