NASA announces 13 candidate regions for Artemis III lunar landing

U.S. space agency NASA has identified 13 candidate regions near the Moon’s South Pole for astronauts to land as part of Artemis III – the first of the Artemis missions to bring crew to the lunar surface, including the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon.

These regions are scientifically significant because of their proximity to the lunar South Pole – an area that contains permanently shadowed regions rich in resources and in terrain unexplored by humans, according to NASA.

Below are the candidate regions for an Artemis III lunar landing:

• Faustini Rim A
• Peak Near Shackleton
• Connecting Ridge
• Connecting Ridge Extension
• de Gerlache Rim 1
• de Gerlache Rim 2
• de Gerlache-Kocher Massif
• Haworth
• Malapert Massif
• Leibnitz Beta Plateau
• Nobile Rim 1
• Nobile Rim 2
• Amundsen Rim

Check out this video featuring a data visualization showing the locations of all 13 landing region candidates:

Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA says all selected regions contain sites that provide continuous access to sunlight throughout a 6.5-day period – the planned duration of the Artemis III surface mission. The agency will select specific sites within regions for Artemis III after it identifies the mission’s target launch dates, which dictate transfer trajectories and surface environment conditions.

Commenting on this development, Sarah Noble, Artemis lunar science lead for NASA’s Planetary Science Division, “Several of the proposed sites within the regions are located among some of the oldest parts of the Moon, and together with the permanently shadowed regions, provide the opportunity to learn about the history of the Moon through previously unstudied lunar materials.”

We are going.As @NASA prepares to send astronauts to the Moon under #Artemis, we have identified 13 candidate landing regions near the lunar South Pole.Learn about the landing regions and what sets them apart: pic.twitter.com/lUwJun9yh0

— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) August 19, 2022