NASA updated the Artemis III landing study on 28 October 2024 and identified nine candidate regions near the lunar south pole, refined down from the 13 regions announced in 2022. The named regions are Peak near Cabeus B, Haworth, Malapert Massif, Mons Mouton Plateau, Mons Mouton, Nobile Rim 1, Nobile Rim 2, de Gerlache Rim 2, and Slater Plain. NASA says each region contains multiple potential landing sites and will be further studied for science and engineering suitability.
The technical significance is control of access to the Moon’s most valuable strategic terrain: permanently shadowed craters, sunlight-rich high points, and routes that may support water-ice prospecting, power generation, communications, and safe crew descent. By narrowing options from 13 to 9, NASA is concentrating risk reduction around terrain safety, lighting, mission availability, and resource potential — exactly the variables that determine whether a lunar foothold becomes a sustained habitat or a short sortie outpost.
For the Ark team, the priority is to map these nine regions against long-term infrastructure needs: water-ice extraction, line-of-sight communications, thermal stability, dust exposure, and landing ellipse safety. Monitor Artemis III, Artemis IV, and any changes to NASA’s site-downselection criteria; integrate these regions into resource models, evacuation planning, and reserve-site logic for a lunar survival architecture.
The single most important takeaway is that the Artemis south-pole landing funnel has now collapsed to nine regions that will likely define humanity’s first durable foothold near lunar water and power assets.