Arizona Researchers Help NASA Return Humans to the Moon

The world just witnessed astronauts travel farther from Earth than any humans in over 50 years, and Arizona researchers are already hard at work on what comes next.

NASA's Artemis II mission successfully completed a 10-day journey around the Moon last week, traveling 252,756 miles from Earth and breaking a distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. But for scientists at Arizona State University, the celebration quickly shifted to preparing for Artemis III, which aims to land humans on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.

"It is really our first steps back to landing on the Moon again, to setting up a base on the moon and to having a permanent human presence on another world," said Laurie Leshin, former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory director and current ASU professor.

Arizona is playing a surprisingly central role in this historic effort. ASU graduate Kelsey Young served as Science Flight Operations Lead for Artemis II, becoming part of a new generation guiding deep-space missions from mission control. She helped integrate scientific research into human exploration while coordinating operations from Maryland.

Meanwhile, back in Arizona, astronauts are training in landscapes that look remarkably like the Moon. Meteor Crater in northern Arizona and Cinder Lake offer rocky, cratered terrain that mirrors the lunar surface. NASA has been using these sites since the Apollo days to give astronauts hands-on experience navigating unfamiliar worlds.

"We've been training astronauts here on some of our more Moon-like landscapes since back in the Apollo days," Leshin explained. The Artemis II crew worked directly with ASU faculty to understand geology before their mission.

The Ripple Effect

Arizona's contributions extend far beyond training grounds. ASU has contributed to more than 25 missions across the solar system, with instruments currently operating around Earth, Mars, the Moon and asteroids. The university is one of only a handful in the country capable of building interplanetary spacecraft.

ASU students are developing superconducting detectors that help receive optical signals from missions like Artemis, critical technology for communication and data collection in deep space. Professor Philip Mauskopf noted that student work is directly supporting the infrastructure that makes these ambitious missions possible.

The timeline is ambitious but clear. Artemis III will launch in 2027 to test systems in low Earth orbit, preparing for an Artemis IV Moon landing in 2028. NASA's long-term goal is establishing a sustained human presence on the lunar surface, using it as a stepping stone for future Mars missions.

For Arizona researchers and students working in desert labs and crater training sites, their efforts are literally shaping humanity's next frontier. "We are literally becoming a multi-planet species with Artemis II," Leshin said, "We are paving the way for that."