Italy will manufacture the living modules for the future stable base on the Moon

The Artemis program is a NASA initiative, with international cooperation and support from private companies, whose purpose is to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon as a preliminary step for future manned missions to Mars.

Following the success of the 2022 unmanned mission, the program faces this week the launch of Artemis II, a mission that will mark the return of a crew to lunar orbit for the first time in more than half a century.

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Minister Urso highlighted that with this agreement Italy assumes a “leading role” in this new phase of exploration, maintaining a historical tradition of space cooperation with the United States that dates back to the figure of Rocco Petrone, director of the Apollo program and a key player in the arrival of man to the Moon in 1969.

The declaration of intent establishes close collaboration in three areas: habitation modules, communication systems and scientific activities on the lunar surface.

“We will return to the Moon to stay. We will do it thanks to Italian technology and with the participation of at least one astronaut from our country in the next Artemis missions,” explained the head of the Company.

This agreement, the note states, reinforces bilateral cooperation that began with the “San Marco” program, a milestone that made Italy the third nation in the world to access space with its own launch vehicle.