Humans are preparing to return to the moon.

This week on Planetary Radio.

I'm Sarah Al Ahmed of the Planetary Society, with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond.

This week I'm joined by two scientists that are helping turn that return to the moon into reality.

Kelsey Young is a research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

She serves as the Artemis Science Flight Operations Lead and is leading the lunar observations and imaging campaign for Artemis II.

She's helping to define what

the astronauts will observe, document, and study as they fly around the moon for the first time

in more than 50 years. We're also joined by Noah Petro, the lab chief of the planetary geology,

geophysics, and geochemistry lab at NASA Goddard. He's the project scientist for the lunar reconnaissance orbiter,

and the project scientist for Artemis 3.

He's responsible for shaping the science behind humanity's first lunar footsteps of the 21st century.

We'll talk about what astronauts are going to be looking for when they return to the moon,

and how these missions are setting the stage for a more sustained human presence on our nearest neighboring world.

Then we'll wrap things up and what's up with Bruce Betts, our chief scientist.

He'll share the story of the first and only geologist to walk on the moon.

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The Artemis program is NASA's effort to return humans to the moon and establish a sustained presence there,

one that's built on decades of scientific knowledge, some really hard-earned lessons from Apollo,

and new capabilities designed for deeper exploration.

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