What Is the Artemis Program?
Humanity’s Boldest Journey Since Apollo
NASA’s Artemis program is a multimission effort to return humans to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. Across six planned missions, Artemis will land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface, establish a sustained human presence on and around the moon, and build the foundation for humanity’s first journey to Mars. Artemis I launched in November 2022 as an uncrewed test of the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket. Artemis II sent four astronauts on a crewed lunar flyby in 2026 — the first humans to travel beyond Earth’s protective magnetic field in more than 50 years. The missions that follow will go further, stay longer and dare more.
The knowledge gained from Artemis II will help shape the future of safe human space exploration and drive innovations that can benefit medicine here on Earth and help us start preparing for a mission to Mars.”
Why Are We Going Back to the Moon?
The Moon Is the Gateway to Everything That Comes Next
The moon is where humanity learns to live beyond Earth — and where we build everything we’ll need to go further.
The moon holds water ice that can fuel spacecraft and sustain crews. Its geology preserves a four-billion-year record of our solar system that Earth’s own forces have long since destroyed. And a sustained human presence there isn’t just scientifically essential — it’s a strategic imperative. The nations that master the moon will shape the future of space.
We’re not waiting to find out what’s possible in space. We’re already figuring it out on Earth.
Solving Problems No One Has Solved Before
UCF Researchers Aren’t Waiting to be Asked
Before anyone sets foot on the moon again, someone has to solve the problems that could make or break the missions. Because we are a launchpad for those who dare to dream beyond Earth, UCF is woven into every layer of the Artemis program.
Mapping the Moon
Planetary scientists Kerri Donaldson Hanna and Adrienne Dove are leading NASA’s Lunar-VISE mission — a $35 million effort to explore parts of the moon no one has visited. Donaldson Hanna is also mapping lunar water ice through NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission. UCF is finding the resources that will make living on the moon possible.
Taming Lunar Dust
Moon dust destroyed Apollo-era equipment. Sharp, electrostatically charged, and capable of taking down hardware, it will do the same to future missions if we let it. UCF planetary scientist Adrienne Dove isn’t letting it. Her microgravity research — already flown on Blue Origin New Shepard flights — is building the science that keeps astronauts safe.
Landing Safely, Every Time
Every landing or launch blasts lunar soil outward at more than 10,000 miles per hour. UCF’s Phil Metzger ’00MS ’05PhD developed the theory that explains exactly how — and NASA selected UCF to prove it through the DUSTER payload on Artemis IV. Metzger and Dhaka Sapkota are also building lunar landing pads from the moon’s own soil. No imports. Just the moon, engineered to work.
The Lab That Simulates the Moon
What is the Exolith Lab?
The Exolith Lab’s Regolith Bin hosts the world’s largest simulated lunar surface — 120 tons of Lunar Highlands Simulant engineered specifically to replicate the moon’s South Pole region, the next target for human exploration through NASA’s Artemis program. That level of specificity is exactly what makes this facility one of a kind. This is where the future of space exploration gets tested before it becomes history.
UCF has shipped more than 40 tons of simulated space dirt to more than 40 countries across the globe.
The university has received $204M in NASA awards since 1991.
Kennedy Space Center, the country’s gateway to the universe, is only 35 miles away from UCF’s main campus.
There’s renewed interest in space exploration, particularly lunar exploration. What the Exolith Lab does is try to support this movement by producing standardized, reliable, high-fidelity simulated versions of what you run into on the surfaces of alien worlds.”
The Closest Medical School to the Moon
How UCF Advances Space Medicine for Artemis
Getting to the moon is only half the mission. The human body was not built for deep space — and we are only beginning to understand what happens to it out there. UCF’s College of Medicine didn’t wait for the data to come to us. We sent our researchers, our technology, and our expertise on the mission itself.
As the closest medical school to Kennedy Space Center, UCF’s Center for Aerospace and Extreme Environments Medicine (CASEEM) was embedded in Artemis II — tracking radiation at the cellular level, immune system changes in uncharted territory, and crew performance under conditions no training can fully replicate. One of the most remarkable tools that flew: organ-on-a-chip devices built from each astronaut’s own bone marrow cells, watching the body’s molecular response to deep space in real time.
What we learned protects the next crew, builds the path to Mars, and will drive medical breakthroughs for people right here on Earth.
UCF Alums Are Making Artemis Happen
When the Rocket Launches, Knights Are in the Room
Nearly 30% of Kennedy Space Center employees are UCF alumni. That’s not a pipeline — that’s a presence.
From the high-profile Florida Space Institute housed at UCF to the world-renowned UCF Planetary Sciences Group and Stephen W. Hawking Center for Microgravity Research and Education, UCF has spent decades building the people and programs that make missions like Artemis possible.
For Artemis II, Knights were in the firing room, on the launchpad, and in the Pacific Ocean waiting for splashdown.
Wes Mosedale ’07MS
Career Path: NASA Senior test director
Degree: Master’s in industrial engineering
Ran about 30 countdown simulations to make sure the Artemis II launch team was ready for anything on launch day.
Paris Bishop ’19
Career Pathway: Test conductor and recovery operations manager
Degree: Bachelor’s in aerospace engineering
Certified for both ends of the mission: pre-launch hardware processing and leading the Pacific Ocean recovery when Orion comes home.
Laura Poliah ’10 ’12MS
Career Path: Orion test engineering lead
Degree: Bachelor’s in aerospace engineering
Degree: Master’s in mechanical engineering
Testing the Orion spacecraft since the very first hardware arrived for Artemis I — built the vehicle, piece by piece, for over a decade.
They’re not alone. From preparing the world’s most powerful rocket to managing launch operations and medical procedures, UCF Knights are working across every department at Kennedy Space Center to make this mission succeed.
NASA’s Medical and Environmental Services Division Chief Tiffaney Miller Alexander ’99 ’05MS ’16PhD and Test Director for Exploration Ground Systems Dan Florez ’06 are among them.
So are Breanne Rohloff ’19 and Dan Zapata ’15 ’18MS, who drive the 26-foot-tall crawler that carries the SLS and Orion spacecraft to Launch Complex 39B.
The pipeline doesn’t stop at Artemis.
UCF Students Are Already on the Mission
The Next Generation Isn’t Waiting
At UCF, students don’t wait for permission to do meaningful work. They’re already doing it — and NASA is paying attention.
Noah Brockhoff
Major: Mechanical engineering
Spent 300 hours building a simulated lunar lander inside the Exolith Lab to study how lunar dust damages spacecraft at terminal velocity. NASA is partnering with UCF on this research — and will use what Noah finds.
Amy Lendian
UCF Online Major: History
Built a career as a fire protection engineer at Kennedy Space Center — including a seat at the console for the Artemis II launch — then enrolled at UCF Online in her 60s to finally finish her degree. It’s never too late.
Luis Jimenez-Chavez ’22
Degree: Master’s in biomedical sciences
Traveled to NASA’s Johnson Space Center as a fellow and ended up co-authoring cancer research with MD Anderson scientists — work to protect astronauts on deep space missions and reshape how we treat disease on Earth.
This is what America’s Space University looks like in practice: students solving real problems for real missions, right now.
What Comes After Artemis?
The Moon Is Where We Learn. Mars Is Where We’re Going.
Every discovery made in lunar orbit, every medical protocol developed for deep space, every engineering solution tested on the lunar surface feeds forward into humanity’s next great leap: Mars. UCF is already building for it.
The space medicine protocols being built through CASEEM right now are designed with Mars in mind. A mission to the Red Planet will take months, not days. It will demand more from the human body than anything Artemis requires. The lunar dust physics being validated through DUSTER on Artemis IV will inform how humanity builds and operates on any planetary surface — the moon first, Mars next. And the Knights at Kennedy Space Center today will be the ones building and flying those missions tomorrow.
In 1963, landing on the moon was still a dream. UCF dared to believe then. We’re still daring now.
Artemis Action
