Charting New Territory: The South Pole Landing Regions of Artemis III

Where will NASA’s Artemis Program precisely land astronauts near the lunar south pole? This is what the famed space agency hopes to determine as they recently narrowed the list of potential landing regions from 13 to 9. This highlights NASA’s ongoing urgency in selecting a final landing site prior to the Artemis III mission, which aims to land astronauts on the Moon in the next few years, including the first woman and the first person of color on the lunar surface. The selected regions will provide scientific opportunities based on geology, terrain, and access to water ice, which can be used for fuel, drinking, electrolysis, and more.

NASA has identified the following potential landing regions (not listed in order of priority): Peak near Cabeus B, Haworth, Malapert Massif, Mons Mouton Plateau, Mons Mouton, Nobile Rim 1, Nobile Rim 2, de Gerlache Rim 2, and Slater Plain. Each region covers several square miles, with more precise landing sites to be determined later.

Image of the nine potential landing regions for Artemis III, obtained by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Wide Angle Camera (WAC). (Credit: NASA)

\"The Moon’s South Pole is a completely different environment than where we landed during the Apollo missions,\" said Dr. Sarah Noble, Artemis lunar science lead at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. \"It offers access to some of the Moon’s oldest terrain, as well as cold, shadowed regions that may contain water and other compounds. Any of these landing regions will enable us to do groundbreaking science and make new discoveries.\"

These regions were selected based on input from scientists and engineers analyzing images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, along with the Artemis III geology team, which is tasked with identifying landing sites based on scientific potential to help understand the formation and evolution of rocky planetary bodies across the solar system.

Where will NASA choose the final landing site for Artemis III? Only time will tell. And that’s why we do science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

Laurence Tognetti is a six-year USAF Veteran with BSc and MSc degrees from the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. Laurence is passionate about space and science communication and authored \"Outer Solar System Moons: Your Personal 3D Journey\".

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