How Artemis Will Land on the Moon Again

The last spacecraft that landed people on the Moon stood about seven meters tall. One of the next ones is 52 meters, and its crew would ride an elevator down to the dust. But before it can land, it has to be refueled in orbit by more than ten tanker flights. Here is NASA's plan as of October 2026: what Artemis II proved, why Orion can't land on its own, how the landers get their fuel, why the south pole, and what a week on the Moon would look like. What has flown, what is planned, and what is still on paper. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:40 What did Artemis II prove? 2:52 Why can't Orion just land? 4:33 How do you fuel a skyscraper? 6:46 Why the south pole? 8:50 A week on the Moon SOURCES • NASA: Artemis I, II, III and IV mission pages; Artemis II press kit, SLS Reference Guide and flight-day blogs (2026) • NASA, NASA Strengthens Artemis (March 3, 2026); NASA FY2027 budget request (April 2026) • NASA Office of Inspector General: IG-24-011 (2024) and IG-26-004, NASA's Management of the Human Landing System Contracts (2026) • NASA OIG, spacesuit development report (April 2026); GAO-26-108556 (July 2026); Congressional Research Service IF11643 (June 2026) • NASA/NTRS: Merancy, NRHO: The Artemis Orbit (2023); Dwyer Cianciolo, Artemis Human Landing System Update (2024); Davis et al. (2019) • NASA, Why NRHO: The Artemis Orbit (white paper); NASA, Artemis III Science Definition Team Report (2020); Tenets of Lunar EVAs (2023) • A. Colaprete et al., Detection of Water in the LCROSS Ejecta Plume, Science 330 (2010) • E. Mazarico et al., Illumination conditions of the lunar polar regions using LOLA topography, Icarus 211 (2011) • NASA NSSDCA Apollo fact sheets; NASA SVS, Ten Cool Things Seen in the First Year of LRO; NPS, Statue of Liberty statistics • Spaceflight Now and SpacePolicyOnline reporting on Starship, New Glenn and the Gateway (2023-2026) IMAGE CREDITS • AI illustration • NASA • NASA (Apollo 11, 1969) • NASA (Apollo 17, 1972) • NASA (Apollo program film) • NASA (Artemis II service module, 2023) • NASA (Artemis II, 2026) • NASA (AxEMU suit testing, 2025) • NASA (AxEMU suit testing, 2026) • NASA (International Space Station, 2024) • NASA (STS-110, 2002) • NASA (STS-112, 2002) • NASA Ames Research Center (animation) • NASA/Alberto Bertolin, Bradley Reynolds (animation) • NASA/Brandon Hancock (Artemis II, 2026) • NASA/Brandon Torres • NASA/Cory Huston • NASA/Cory S. Huston (Artemis II, 2026) • NASA/Frank Michaux (Artemis II, 2026) • NASA/Jamie Peer (Artemis II, 2026) • NASA/Kevin Davis • NASA/Sam Lott (Artemis II, 2026) • NASA/Skip Williams Music: original score made for this channel. Narration: AI-generated voice. Script researched and fact-checked against the sources above. Some illustrations are AI-generated concept art.