A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee has told NASA to send Artemis astronauts to four moon sites away from the south pole, and to have one crew retrieve hardware and human waste left at Apollo 15 in 1971.
NASA asked the committee to recommend landing sites outside the polar region, where the agency already plans a long-term base. The panel chose Bhabha Crater, Mons Hadley, Orientale Basin, and Aristarchus Plateau. Each would get a "sortie": a one-time visit by two astronauts making one to four moonwalks within 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of their lander. That is NASA's long-standing "walkback" limit, which the committee thinks the agency should try to extend.
The Apollo 15 plan is the odd one out. A crew would land just north of Mons Hadley, far enough away to avoid disturbing the site, then walk over to the rover, lander base, instruments, and power systems. After decades of radiation and lunar day-night temperature swings, that equipment amounts to an accidental long-duration test. The urine and feces could show how biological material changes and whether it affects its surroundings. Committee co-chair Dan Dumbacher said the results would be "foundational information" for engineering lunar bases.
The other sites are picked for science. Bhabha, the top choice, sits in what may be the largest and oldest crater in the solar system, on the far side. Co-chair James Day called it nearly unmatched for radio astronomy. Orientale could test whether the moon was once entirely molten, and host a gravitational-wave detector. Aristarchus, an Apollo target NASA never reached, has volcanic deposits that may hold water.
The logic is a division of labor. The poles lack the volcanic terrain and the uranium and thorium found elsewhere, so sorties would complement the base rather than replace it, according to the report. The Apollo 15 stop suits that role: it answers a base-engineering question using hardware already on the surface.
The far side is the harder part. The panel wants a communications system that keeps crews in constant contact with Earth, plus instruments that survive the lunar night. NASA, not the committee, decides which missions fly and in what order.