The Artemis Program: Will It Stay Plagued by Delays Forever?

By: Abinav Atreya

[NASA image taken from launch of Artemis I]

The Artemis Program is a program headed by NASA, aiming to advance humans throughout the solar system, by returning to the moon and landing on Mars. However, it has been plagued by funding issues, government intervention, and a complicated history. Is it doomed to stay stuck behind, or will it finally advance ahead, paving the way for humanity?

“That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” Those were the first words ever said on another world, by famous astronaut Neil Armstrong on the world-renowned Apollo 11 mission. That was 56 years ago. Of those 56 years, the first 3 were spent on the Apollo Program, a series of missions led by NASA to land on the moon. With the conclusion of Apollo 17 in 1972, not a single human has set foot on the moon or any other celestial body. NASA’s Artemis Program aims to change that.

The Artemis Program is a similar series of missions aiming to send humans back into deep space. But this time, permanently. Artemis has already launched a mission, Artemis 1, an unmanned mission testing the equipment for the long journey it will carry people on. Artemis 2 will bring four astronauts into orbit around the moon and return them to Earth in early 2026, and Artemis 3 will land another 4 astronauts on the moon by mid-2027. The program’s end goal is to establish a permanent lunar base to facilitate missions to Mars. 

While simple on paper, the program has seen no end to criticism and receives little support from the government and the public alike. Low amounts of allocated money have forced NASA to update shuttle-era technologies, a long, laborious, and counterintuitively costly pathway. Thus, much of the hardware, software, launch vehicles, and more are harder to control, more complex, and more liable for unplanned errors. 

More on Engineering Challenges

For those who aren’t very invested in the technology it takes to build functional rockets, it may seem to be a relatively simple endeavor. However, just like the popular phrases imply, nothing could be further from the truth.

Most of the glaring issues come from its main rocket, the SLS. Based on shuttle-era technologies, one would expect their construction to be quick and painless. Yet very soon into designing, and after Artemis I (the first test flight), it was found that much more effort would be required to ready the rocket by the time of its first crewed launch. For example, one of the four RS-25 engines powering the core stage of the launch vehicle underwent extreme overheating during a test fire, scrubbing the launch soon after. Other issues involved fuel leaks from the core stage, malfunctioning valves, and computer failures. Issues encountered on other parts of the craft ranged from cracking of the Orion Capsule’s heat shield, damage to the Mobile Launcher (a mobile launch platform that brings the rockets out of the Vehicle Assembly Building onto the launch pad, and serves as the launch support structure and umbilical tower). The first steps of the Artemis Program have been plagued with mishaps and engineering troubles. 

[An image of an RS-25 engine at full throttle]

Engineers, CEOs, and rocketry fans all witness the mission’s shortcomings. So, even with such a delayed schedule, why did Artemis I have so many issues? The answer lies in both monetary and political support.

A Short History

So why is the program in such a sorry state? For that, we’ll have to go back to the early 2000s. In 2004, NASA initiated the ill-fated Constellation Program to reinstate human presence on the moon and Mars. One of their guidelines was to use as much shuttle-derived technology as possible, to quicken the pace. But engineers quickly found out that to efficiently and reliably follow mission directives and parameters, the two rockets designed for the Constellation Program, the Ares I and Ares V, would need to be heavily redesigned and required completely new materials, blueprints, and testing. The projected cost skyrocketed far past NASA’s already measly budget, and the program ground to a halt. It was eventually canceled in 2010, with only one actual test launch to its name.

[What the Constellation Program could have looked like]

Even with the Constellation Program’s cancellation, NASA still desperately needed a mission plan that was somehow to be even cheaper and shuttle-based. It was here that the SLS and the Artemis were born, using the same engines, the same fuel, and the same tanks. But even with this, the old technologies proved to be too unreliable, and multiple tests were needed to confirm the rocket’s readiness. By its first launch, Artemis was years behind schedule, and soured public and political views did not help its progression. 

My Opinion

So what does this mean? Does this mean Artemis is doomed, and that the long-awaited program will never succeed? Even in the face of its numerous difficulties and challenges, I would still say no. Yes, the program is heavily underfunded. Yes, it is many years behind its original schedule. And yes, it is still far above its allocated budget. But the same was true of many programs before it. Even the famous Apollo missions, fueled by the Cold War, also faced engineering issues, budgetary problems, and public backlash. Yet in the face of it all, we still put a human on the moon before the decade was out. While the end goal might seem infinitely far away, lost, and unreachable, we will surely find a way to return to the stars.