Should moon astronauts skip the south pole? One NASA pilot thinks so

A NASA astronaut who flew around the moon earlier this year is now questioning one of NASA's biggest plans. Victor Glover, who piloted the Artemis II mission in April, says the agency should think twice before aiming for the moon's south pole on its first lunar landing. He made these remarks at a NASA science forum in California on July 21. Glover thinks landing near the moon's equator first would be a smarter and safer move.

Glover explained that the equator has some clear advantages over the south pole. Areas near the equator stay in sunlight longer, which is important for solar power and for keeping astronauts safe. Missions landing there could also reach Earth more quickly in an emergency. 'If you want to go fast, go familiar ... If we want to land soon, familiar, daylight, equator,' Glover said.

NASA has had its eye on the south pole for a long time because of one very special resource: water ice. Scientists believe that craters near the south pole are permanently shadowed, meaning sunlight never reaches inside them. Those dark craters are thought to hold large amounts of frozen water. That ice could be turned into drinking water, used as radiation shielding, or even broken down to make rocket fuel — all things a future moon base would need.

A moon base is actually NASA's long-term dream. The agency wants to build a place where astronauts can live and work on the moon for long periods. The lessons learned there could one day help humans travel to Mars. That big goal is one reason the south pole landing matters so much to many people at NASA.

But Glover raised a serious safety concern about landing at the south pole. Because of the complicated orbit NASA planned to use, called a near-rectilinear halo orbit, or NRHO, a spacecraft leaving the moon's surface can only link up with the Orion capsule about once a week. That means if an astronaut got hurt or sick right after landing, the crew could be stuck waiting for days before they could leave. 'You're stuck for a week,' Glover said. 'That's a big deal to me, and I don't like that plan ... The equator gives me opportunity to save that person.'

There is also a political reason why NASA feels pressure to reach the south pole quickly. China has been building up its own moon program and hopes to land astronauts there by 2030. Some U.S. leaders worry about what it would mean if China got to the south pole first. At a Senate hearing last year, space experts warned lawmakers that falling behind China on the moon could hurt America's economy, security, and global influence.

China has already shown it can land robots on the moon and bring back rock samples. It has done this on both the near side and the far side of the moon. Those are big steps toward a crewed landing, and they show that China is moving fast. This adds pressure on NASA to get astronauts to the moon — and to the south pole — before China does.

NASA's next mission, Artemis III, is planned for next year. It will send four astronauts in the Orion capsule to practice docking with two commercial lunar landers — one built by SpaceX, called Starship, and one by Blue Origin, called Blue Moon. If that mission goes well, NASA hopes to make its first actual moon landing on Artemis IV in late 2028. Both landers have faced delays, which has made some people wonder if they will be ready in time.

SpaceX already seems to be on board with Glover's thinking. Jessica Jensen, a SpaceX vice president, described a new plan for the Artemis IV mission that would have Starship dock with Orion in Earth orbit instead of using the complicated NRHO path. 'The crew can also abort off the lunar surface nearly any time, versus waiting up to days from NRHO,' she said. This new route would also use less fuel and reduce the risk of delays. NASA may already be quietly moving toward a higher-latitude landing site, which would be closer to the equator than the south pole.