NASA aiming to return to the moon in 2026

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Artemis III mission manager Mike Sarafin shares NASA's mission to return to the moon in 2026. July 20 is Space Exploration Day, marking the 55th anniversary of Apollo 11's historic moon landing.

Transcript

00:00Saturday July 20th is Space Exploration Day. It marks 55 years since Apollo 11

00:07when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to step

00:12foot on the surface of the moon. And joining us from NASA is Mike Serafin. He

00:17is the mission manager for NASA's Artemis 3 program. Thank you so much for

00:22joining us Mike. And you said you're a big fan of the show so we also appreciate

00:25that. Yeah, thank you for having me Ari. I appreciate the just all the

00:31information that you guys provide and it's great to be here with you. Well now

00:35hopefully you can provide us some information because July 20th 1969. Can

00:40you put into perspective the importance of Apollo 11's mission and the

00:44accomplishments? Yeah, Apollo 11 was arguably one of the greatest achievements

00:49in all of humankind where Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon for the

00:55very first time. And we accomplished the goal, the national goal of putting a man

01:01on the moon by the end of the decade. And it inspired an entire generation of

01:06young men, young women to enter the field of science, technology, engineering, and

01:12math. And it was a boost to our nation's posture all across the globe. And it is

01:20an achievement that is going to be hard to beat. As mission manager, you are

01:26leading NASA's Artemis 3, scheduled to return to the moon in 2026. What is your

01:31mission? Yes, we will return to the to the moon, this time going to the region of

01:39the South Pole. And we'll bring the first woman and eventually we'll bring our

01:46international partners and people of color to the surface of the moon. We're

01:50going back this time to stay. We're going back with international partners. We're

01:55going with our industry partners. We're going for science, for inspiration, and

02:02for national posture. And having a coalition of like-minded partners,

02:08whether they're here in the U.S. or our international partners, is going to set

02:13behaviors for human exploration for decades to come. I love that. All right,

02:19looking ahead, what are the team goals for Artemis 3? And how will it help

02:25further space exploration to Mars?

02:30So fundamentally, we're going to take four astronauts out to the moon, two of

02:35them will stay in lunar orbit, two will get into a lander and go down to the

02:39surface of the moon, explore for the better part of a week to help us

02:44understand the history of the moon. The moon doesn't have erosion like we have

02:49here on Earth, and it's our closest neighbor. So by studying the moon, we can

02:53learn more about the history of the earth and changes over time that have

02:58happened that haven't been worn away by wind and rain and water. We will also

03:05grow technologies and again inspire the Artemis generation of young men, young

03:13women, to seek careers in science, technology, engineering, and math, and go

03:19with our partners. And partnering with friendly nations and drawing them

03:25into a peaceful endeavor is all going to encapsulate our goals, and we will go

03:32with them even further eventually on the Mars when we're ready.

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