The American space agency NASA has announced plans worth 28 billion dollars to return to the moon by 2024 - and that mission will include the first female astronaut.
As part of the Artemis program, the agency's goal is to send a man and a woman to land on the moon, which will be the first return of mankind to the moon since 1972.
But this report is conditioned by the fact that it is not yet known when Congress will approve $3,2 billion for the construction of the landing system.
The astronauts will travel in the Orion spacecraft, an Apollo-like capsule that is supposed to be attached to the powerful SLS rocket.
"The sum of $28 billion represents costs related to our activities and the Artemis program to land on the moon over the next four years. There's money for SLS, for Orion, the human landing system and, of course, spacesuits," said Jim Bridenstine, NASA's first man.
"This plan requires the Senate to first approve a $3,2 billion budget to build a human landing system next year. It is of fundamental importance," he added.
The US House of Representatives has already passed a bill providing $600 million to build the spacecraft, but NASA needs to get more money to complete the project.
In July 2019, Bridenstine told CNN that the first woman on the moon in 2024 would be a person who "has proven herself, has already flown and lived on the International Space Station."
On that occasion, Bridenstine added that it will be someone who is already part of the space units.
At the time of the interview, NASA had 12 female astronauts. In the meantime, five more who graduated earlier this year joined. It remains unclear whether any of them can meet the criteria and fly on the first mission to the moon in 2024.
Asked about the schedule for the selection of members of the Artemis mission, the head of NASA said that he hopes that they will be selected two years earlier.
"It is important that we start assembling a team for this mission as soon as possible," he said. By sending an astronaut team to the moon again, the White House wants to cement America as the leader in the space race.
NASA also plans to collect valuable deposits of frozen water from the lunar South Pole. They could be used to make rocket fuel on the moon - at a lower cost than bringing it from Earth.
And that could be the basis for the development of the lunar economy.
But US Vice President Mike Pence expressed concern about China's space ambitions. In January 2019, the Asian superpower became the first nation to conduct a soft landing of a robotic rover on the moon.
This country is now preparing for the first mission that will bring soil samples from the Moon to Earth.
China is developing a next-generation spacecraft so its astronauts can fly into deep space. Although China's timetable does not foresee the completion of this project until 2024, it is clear that the country is making progress towards meeting the goal by the end of the decade.
New NASA documents highlight Phase One of the US plan, which includes the Artemis 1 plan - unmanned test flights to the Moon - by autumn 2021.
Katie Lueders, head of NASA's spaceflight division, said the Artemis 1 program will last about a month to allow enough time to test all the critical elements of the system.
She also stated that the test flight will reduce the risk for the Artemis 2 mission, which involves a flight with astronauts around the Moon. A new test has been added to the mission program - it involves a demonstration of close flight operations. Not long after Orion separates from the upper part of the SLS rocket - astronauts will manually fly the spacecraft.
Based on this test, assessments will be made of Orion's capabilities, its hardware and software.
Artemis 3 will become the first mission to send astronauts to the surface of the Moon in 48 years. NASA has provided about $967 million to several companies working on the design of a vehicle to land on the surface. Later this decade, NASA plans to build a base on the surface of the moon and call it Camp Artemis.
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