The proposed Artemis Moon Base is NASA’s plan for a permanent human presence on the Moon, built as part of the broader Artemis programme to support science, operations, and eventual Mars missions. NASA’s Artemis page says the programme is aimed at returning astronauts to the Moon, using lunar exploration for scientific discovery and economic benefits, and building toward the first crewed Mars missions. The moon base concept is a long-term lunar outpost, not just a short visit site, and NASA’s Artemis materials describe related infrastructure such as landers, suits, rovers, and the Gateway lunar station.
 
According to recent reporting, NASA’s latest Artemis overhaul shifts emphasis from Gateway toward a direct lunar base plan, with the base described as being built in three phases: experimental design, early semi-habitable infrastructure, and then a permanent base. Artemis IV and Artemis V are now being positioned as the missions that would help lay the foundation for that base. NASA says lunar exploration can answer high-priority science questions, especially by having humans on-site to use robotic and surface systems more effectively. The Moon is also framed as a steppingstone to Mars, so a base would function as both a research outpost and a logistics testbed for deeper-space exploration.
 
The biggest uncertainties are cost, schedule, and whether NASA can keep both the lunar base and other Artemis ambitions on track at once. The Artemis mission timeline most relevant to the proposed Moon base: Artemis I in 2022 proved the SLS rocket and Orion capsule, Artemis II is the first crewed lunar flyby, Artemis III is now focused on a crewed test in lunar orbit, and Artemis IV is the first planned landing mission under the revised plan. An outline of the timeline:

​Artemis I — launched Nov. 16, 2022, as an uncrewed test flight that returned safely on Dec. 11, 2022.
Artemis II — first crewed Artemis mission, a Moon flyby with four astronauts, now the critical human test beyond low-Earth orbit.
Artemis III — revised from a landing mission into an orbital mission that will test docking and other landing-related procedures for later use.
Artemis IV — now the first mission expected to land astronauts near the lunar south pole, tentatively targeted for 2028 in current reporting.
Artemis V and later — intended to expand surface infrastructure, deliver rovers and cargo, and begin supporting a sustained lunar presence.
 
The newer base concept is to build in phases, using later Artemis missions plus commercial lunar cargo deliveries to accumulate hardware and infrastructure on the surface. NASA’s current framing is that repeated missions will support a long-term presence rather than a single landing campaign. The main change in 2026 is that the first landing moved from Artemis III to Artemis IV, which pushes the base-building sequence one mission later. That change is meant to reduce risk and spread out the testing of systems needed for the Moon base.
 
References
Pester, P. (2026, March 26). NASA Announces Near-Impossible Space Plans, Including $20 Billion Moon Base and Humanity’s First Nuclear-Powered Interplanetary Spacecraft. LiveScience.
 
Wall, M. (2026, May 26). Artemis Moon Base Will Cover Hundreds of Square Miles with Hopping Drones and  New Lunar Rovers, NASA Says. SPACE.Com.
 
(2026). Artemis. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis/
 
(2026). Artemis, NASA’s Moon Landing Program. The Planetary Society. https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/artemis

​Astronomers think the Milky Way absorbed a small dwarf galaxy dubbed Loki billions of years ago. The idea comes from a recent study of 20 metal-poor stars whose chemical patterns and orbits suggest they likely came from that ancient merger.
 
Loki is the name researchers gave to a suspected dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way very early in our galaxy’s history. The stars linked to it appear to have been scattered when the merger happened, leaving behind a remnant population inside the Milky Way. The study looked at the stars’ chemical abundances and orbital behaviour. Their properties fit a short-lived dwarf galaxy that was chemically distinct from many other metal-poor stars in the Milky Way’s halo.
 
Astronomers identify stars from other galaxies by looking at their chemical fingerprints in starlight. Each element absorbs and emits light at very specific wavelengths, so a star’s spectrum reveals its elemental mix and lets scientists compare it with stars formed in the Milky Way. Stars that formed in a small dwarf galaxy often have a different enrichment history from Milky Way stars. They may show unusual ratios such as iron to magnesium, or a different spread in heavier elements, because their parent galaxy formed stars more slowly or experienced different gas inflow and merger history.
 
Researchers usually combine several clues. These include element ratios, especially iron, magnesium, and other alpha elements; how broad or narrow the abundance pattern is across many stars; and whether the stars cluster together in orbital space, which can indicate a shared origin. If a group of stars all share a distinctive chemical pattern that does not match typical Milky Way populations, that suggests they were born together in a separate system and later accreted by the Milky Way. In practice, astronomers use chemistry plus motion together, because chemistry alone is strong evidence but not always enough on its own.
 
This is still an interpretation based on a small sample, so the conclusion is promising but not final. Future larger surveys are expected to test whether those stars really trace back to one ancient galaxy.
 
References
Astronomy Staff. (2019, June). Ask Astro: How Do Scientists Determine the Chemical Compositions of the Planets and Stars? Astronomy.
 
Kasal, K. (2026, April 30). A Lost Galaxy Called Loki May Be Hiding Inside the Milky Way. Phys.Org.
 
Sutter, P. (2024, October 17). A Baby Milky Way May Have Swallowed a Dwarf Galaxy Named Loki. Astronomy. 
 
(2026, May 19). Star. In Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star
 
(2025, December 9). This Surprising Discovery Rewrites the Milky Way’s Origin Story. ScienceDaily. Royal Astronomical Society. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/12/251209082301.htm
 
(2023, June 23). A Bird’s Eye View of the Milky Way. Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. https://www.mpg.de/20470314/reconstructing-alien-astronomers-view-of-our-home-galaxy-s-chemistry