By Stephanie Dwilson | 2025-03-10

Space policy watchers are urging NASA to accelerate its Artemis program in the new space race to the Moon.

NASA's Artemis campaign aims to re-establish a human presence on the Moon, and ultimately use that presence to send astronauts to Mars.

The multi-step campaign includes a goal of getting humans to the lunar South Pole before 2030, followed by building a space station on the Moon.

China has similar plans, drawing concerns from the US scientific community.

If China and its allies outpace the United States in space dominance, it could pose critical national security and economic concerns, Dan Dumbacher, professor of engineering practice at Purdue University, on February 26 warned.

He spoke during a hearing held by the US House Committee on Science, Space and Technology's space and aeronautics subcommittee titled, "Step by Step: The Artemis Program and NASA's Path to Human Exploration of the Moon, Mars and Beyond."

"The Chinese have very deliberately plotted a course, with clear milestone dates, to demonstrate that China is the dominant power in space," Dumbacher said in his opening remarks.

"Their intent is to catch and surpass the United States by 2030… The Chinese are serious competitors… They plan to arrive at the South Pole of the Moon in both 2026 and 2028."

China plans to establish a permanent lunar base by the 2030s -- a goal shared by NASA's Artemis program, Dumbacher added.

Leading the way

NASA might need to revise its Artemis campaign and consider alternatives to its current Space Launch System (SLS) in order to meet the campaign's timeline, Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, suggested at the hearing.

The SLS is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle used by NASA as the primary launch vehicle of the Artemis program.

The first priority, Pace said, should be reaching the Moon before the Chinese. This task might involve buying heavy lift services from private companies, such as SpaceX, Blue Origin or United Launch Alliance, rather than relying on the SLS.

"The United States should seek to use commercial providers for heavy lift capabilities that can sustain multiple crew and cargo missions each year to the Moon," he said, adding that the SLS "can be phased out as one or more sources of private heavy-lift are demonstrated."

"Then we need to be able to think: how are we going to stay there in a way that's sustainable and affordable?" Pace noted.

NASA needs a sustainable presence on the Moon to remain competitive and sustain future national and economic security concerns, Pace and Dumbacher agreed.

"It is absolutely critical that the United States reinforce existing international partnerships and build new partnerships," Dumbacher said.

"We must continue to lead the coalition from the Earth to the Moon, and we must bring international and commercial partners along with us," he added.

To the Moon

Recent missions to the Moon as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative are helping lay the groundwork for the space agency's future manned Artemis missions.

The missions have been largely successful, even with some setbacks, NASA officials say.

For example, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down on the Moon on March 2, carrying 10 NASA science and technology payloads.

The mission includes demonstrating subsurface drilling, sample collection, satellite navigation abilities, lunar dust mitigation and more.

Six of the payloads have achieved their "mission success criteria," while three of them also achieved stretch goals, Brad Bailey, assistant deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said at a NASA town hall meeting March 10.

The lander's operations were dialed back during the heat of the lunar midday but are expected to ramp up again as it heads towards lunar sunset and the end of the mission March 16, he said according to SpaceNews.

"As they start heading towards lunar night, then we expect to complete all the operations of the other payloads," he said. "So overall, it's been a fabulous, wonderful proof positive that the CLPS model does work."

The CLPS initiative lets American companies bid on delivering payloads to the Moon.

Intuitive Machines' IM-2 mission provides another example: on March 6 it landed closer to the lunar South Pole than any previous lander did.

The mission included a drill to bring lunar soil to the surface and a mass spectrometer to look for the presence of gases that could one day help provide fuel or breathable oxygen to future Artemis explorers, according to NASA.

Unfortunately IM-2 landed on its side, preventing it from fully operating the drill and other instruments before its batteries were depleted.

Lessons learned

NASA officials remained positive.

"Each success and setback are opportunities to learn and grow, and we will use this lesson to propel our efforts to advance science, exploration and commercial development as we get ready for human exploration of Mars," Nicky Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement March 7.

Clayton Turner, associate administrator for space technology at NASA Headquarters, took a similar tone.

"While this mission didn't achieve all of its objectives for NASA, the work that went into the payload development is already informing other agency and commercial efforts," he said.

"As we continue developing new technologies to support exploration of the Moon and Mars, testing technologies in-situ is crucial to informing future missions," he added. "The CLPS initiative remains an instrumental method for achieving this."