It was July 1969, and people on planet Earth were about to witness a historical moment for humanity: the first time a human being stepped on the surface of the Moon aboard the Apollo 11 mission. After this event, NASA landed five more times on the lunar surface, with the last one being Apollo 17 in 1972. Since then, humans have not attempted to return to the Moon until this year, 2026, when they will launch the Orion spacecraft as part of the Artemis II Mission. Planned to set off between February and April 2026, Orion will not yet land people on the Moon, instead it will make a flyby, in order to allow testing of the software and systems. This will set the base for an actual human landing on the Moon's South Pole as part of Artemis III sometime between 2027 and 2028, eventually opening a brand new era in Extraterrestrial architectural design.
Orion will host a crew of 4 astronauts (3 from the United States and 1 from Canada) during a 685,000 miles (1,102,404 km), 10-day journey. Once in space, they will live and work in Orion, which at that moment will be composed of only 2 parts: The crew module, which will be the main living and working space, and the service module, which will provide the essential resources they need to stay alive, like potable water and air. Both parts will measure a total of 7.3 m in height by 5.2 m in width.
