Is the Artemis program doomed?

When the first Trump administration announced a pledge to reestablish America’s human presence on the Moon, the goal was to create a permanent base on the lunar surface, which could be used to help facilitate missions to Mars.

In 2019, the cost estimate for the program – dubbed Project Artemis – was suggested by NASA to be between $20 and $30 billion. And while that’s a big number, it actually pales in comparison to the revised figure that came two years later when the agency’s Office of Inspector General suggested the true cost would be $93 billion – and that was just through 2025.

Speaking of 2025, here we are – and the updates taking place over the past few weeks don’t seem to bode well for Project Artemis.