NASA’s Artemis ‘Moon to Mars’ program is progressing with plans to return to the Moon and laying the groundwork for a Mars landing, although the agency is not yet ready to send humans to the Red Planet, according to a program official.
The Artemis program is NASA’s initiative to return humans to the moon and establish a sustainable presence. Launched during President Donald Trump’s first term, it aims to advance science, test new technologies, and pave the way for future missions to Mars. Originally set for 2024, the deadline for astronauts to return to the lunar surface has been pushed back to 2027.
“The goal of the entire [program] is to build a foundation for deep space exploration, to expand our range of action,” said Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars Program, during a CSIS webinar on Feb. 24, adding that NASA’s recent test activities have been focused on evolving that “necessary foundation.”
Kshatriya further explained that the agency is currently developing, testing, and launching components that will “evolve the architecture for foundational exploration,” to the moon and beyond. For instance, NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer satellite, developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is set to launch in the coming weeks to investigate the Moon’s composition. These initiatives, as Kshatriya explained, support the testing of key technologies and the development of systems for future Moon and Mars missions.
However, while the space agency stays the course with its lunar exploration program, the future of NASA’s goals and Artemis funding remains uncertain. In his inaugural address on January 20, the President made it clear that his ambitions extend far beyond the Moon, with Mars firmly in his sights.
“We will pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars,” Trump said during his inauguration address in the Capitol Rotunda.
While President Trump reinstated the Moon’s role in NASA’s Mars plans with Space Policy Directive 1 in 2017, he later criticized the agency for prioritizing the Moon as the Artemis program gained momentum. In a 2019 tweet, he stated, “NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon – We did that 50 years ago,” and urged the focus to shift to Mars.
But sending humans to Mars is vastly more difficult than to the Moon.
“The Mars landing challenge is complex, and the transit issue is even more so. The radiation environment is severe, life support systems must be highly reliable, and propulsion capabilities need significant improvement. All of these are tough technical problems,” Kshatriya said.
“But as Americans, we can solve them – we know how to do it. We just need time and the right testing environment to get it right,” he added.
NASA Must Build Industrial Base to Reach Mars
Despite the President’s criticism, Kshatriya believes lawmakers from both sides of the aisle support Mars as a long-term goal, though few see bypassing the Moon as a viable option.
However, he emphasized that the real challenge lies in building the industrial and technical base necessary to support further exploration into the solar system.
“We need to change the way we do business within the program to make any of this work. Specifically, we must focus on using programmatic investment as a catalyst for reindustrialization in key industries,” Kshatriya said.
He further emphasized that this change goes beyond program funding, stating, “it’s about the government becoming a better customer, implementing acquisition reform in a logical way, and actually getting things done.”
“We need to remove unnecessary design, construction, and reporting requirements, and adopt more efficient practices like rapid acquisitions, prototyping, and commercial acquisitions when it makes sense. All of this is essential to increase our agility,” he said.
