NASA announced an ambitious plan to return to the Moon in just five years. This time, there will be a seat on the 2024 lunar mission specially reserved for a woman, the first to ever walk on the Moon.
The space agency wants to make camp, and to get there it’s taking an entirely different approach to the Apollo missions.
The program itself makes a sort-of bow to gender equality: it’s named for the Greek goddess and twin sister of Apollo, the venerable Artemis.
Up till now only 12 people have been able to walk on the moon, who were both men. But now this time the strategy has been changed.
Apart from setting foot on the lunar surface, NASA even plans to include establishing a lunar outpost during the mission.
The mission will also include investigating moon’s resources and how they might be exploited, and also using it as a base to explore Mars and further into deep space