The space agencies of the United States and Canada are today unveiling the four astronauts who will travel to the moon next year aboard the Artemis-2 mission, the first manned test of the program, which western space powers aim to bring humans to our satellite first time in half a century. The four occupants of the brand new Orion capsule, three Americans and one Canadian, were announced today at an event at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA, at 5:00 p.m. Spanish Peninsula Time. The astronauts are Christina H. Koch, black astronaut Victor J. Glover, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen.
The Artemis 2 mission is the first manned test of the Orion space capsule and the SLS rocket, the most powerful in history. The project intends to establish inhabited colonies on the moon to bring humans to Mars in the coming decades.
If all goes well, the Artemis 2 will be released late next year. The crew will travel to the moon, orbit it and return to Earth in about ten days. The mission will test all systems that allow astronauts to live in the capsule. Europa is contributing a key part of the ship: its service module, which provides the crew capsule with air, water, power, propulsion and temperature control.
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Howard Hu, head of NASA’s Orion program, told EL PAÍS a few days ago what the inside of the new ship looks like. “The space is like that of an SUV, a big car. As you enter through the hatch, at your feet is the bathroom door, which is the size of a small phone booth. There are two rows of two seats, one on top of the other like bunk beds. In the first two, the commander and the pilot will go. They can see the entire steering console that helps them navigate the ship. Once in orbit they float weightlessly and the seats fold up and stow to make room. It’s a very cozy ship with a kitchen for heating food and a bathroom in a separate room.” It’s the first time NASA has integrated something like this into a spacecraft to the moon. 50 years ago the Apollo astronauts, all men, urinated and defecated in sacks with no privacy.
Artemis 2 is a critical step for Artemis 3 to allow a year later the first woman and first non-white person to set foot on the satellite’s surface, 53 years after the last visit performed by two white men during the Apollo Mission 17: Gene Cernan – died in 2017 – and Harrison Schmitt.
The Artemis program comes at a time when interest in the Moon and its resources is greatest, including the large reservoirs of frozen water at the South Pole where the South Pole crew members will land. This water will be crucial to sustaining inhabited colonies and making rocket fuel capable of reaching Mars. The western powers are at odds with China over the exploration and exploitation of these resources. Though the Asian country isn’t as advanced as its rivals, China is making world-class discoveries with its unmanned probes. A few days ago, the Asian country revealed the probable origin of water on the moon, explaining that there is much more than previously thought.
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