Illustration of an astronaut sifting lunar regolith. Credit: NASA

There were few major surprises when NASA rolled out a detailed architecture for human exploration of the moon and Mars at the 38th Space Symposium April 18. The 150-page document largely reinforced plans for the initial series of Artemis missions to the moon using the Space Launch System, Orion, Gateway, Human Landing System and other programs in development for years.

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Jeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews. He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science...