A NASA astronaut cautioned that landing at the lunar south pole could leave an appendicitis-ridden crew member stranded there.
Victor Glover, who piloted the Artemis II mission around the moon in April 2026, expressed his concerns about future moon landing missions while speaking at the NASA Exploration Science Forum at Ames Research Center on July 21. Glover argued NASA should instead set its sights on the Moon’s equator because of the safety and operational risks of heading straight to the south pole, he said at the forum.
NASA prefers the lunar south pole due to its unique, permanently shadowed craters, which are likely to contain ice that could sustain future missions, according to a NASA white paper. Nearby sunlit regions would keep solar hardware constantly powered, and the ancient south pole surface could offer more insights into our solar system’s history.
“If you want to go fast, go familiar. We want to get to the surface. If we want to land soon, familiar, daylight, equator,” Glover said during the forum.
Glover then explained what would happen if an astronaut developed appendicitis during a hypothetical south pole landing mission.
“If [your appendix] ruptures on landing day, you’re stuck for a week. That’s a big deal to me, and I don’t like that plan,” he said. “The equator gives me opportunity to save that person.”
Glover noted his view is not part of NASA’s formal planning. “That’s just me, and nobody’s asking me those questions,” he told the forum audience.
China is racing to put its first astronauts on the lunar surface before the end of the decade, according to Space.com. “We will spare no effort to strive for the goal of achieving the first Chinese landing on the moon by 2030,” China Manned Space Agency spokesman Zhang Jingbo said.
China also plans to colonize the lunar south pole by 2035, Space.com reported. The US rival is set to deploy Africa’s first radio telescope array there aboard the Chang’e-8 mission in 2029, potentially giving Beijing an early presence at the south pole before a US landing.
“Victor is one of our best. We value the input of everybody at NASA, especially those who just went around the Moon. We also have 55,000 others at NASA whose assessments are also taken into account,” Bethany Stevens, NASA senior advisor and press secretary, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“As of now, NASA is still targeting a landing at the lunar South Pole. We are confident we can achieve that objective on the timetable laid out for us in President Trump’s National Space Policy.”
SpaceX and Blue Origin did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Artemis III, slated for 2027, will send four astronauts on Orion to perform tests with SpaceX Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon landers, according to Space.com. The first crewed landing would follow on Artemis IV, projected for 2028.
“We don’t know exactly what the lander capabilities will be as they’re developing, so we’re keeping that trade space open until we have that information in hand and can really narrow down exactly where we’re going,” NASA’s chief exploration scientist Jacob Bleacher explained at a panel discussion during the forum, SpaceNews reported.
NASA’s upcoming Artemis IV and Artemis V missions will choose specific landing locations based on the abilities of the landers, and both are still targeting the south polar region, according to SpaceNews.
(DCNF)