Over the past couple of years, NASA’s Artemis program has been slowly gaining momentum. So I think for me, that has always been this dream mission-this driving exploration and curiosity.” Returning to stay It wasn’t just me in space it was actually me standing on the surface of the moon. When Meir was asked in first grade to draw her dream job, she says, “I distinctly remember drawing a picture of an astronaut standing next to the flag, the American flag on the surface of the moon. And finally, blasting off from the lunar surface, rendezvousing with another spacecraft, and then heading home requires similar tricky manoeuvres performed in reverse.īut NASA’s astronauts aren’t just up for the challenge-they’re eager for it. Landing on the moon-a feat that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin very nearly failed on July 20, 1969-is even more risky. Pulling into lunar orbit involves a delicate, precisely executed shift in gravitational allegiance. We’ll be going to new sites we have a wealth of new hypotheses and scientific experiments that will be conducted.”īut getting to the moon-and more importantly, returning to Earth-is tough. “There’s so much to go explore with the Artemis program. “If I can be a part of these missions in any capacity, it will truly be a dream come true,” says NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, who’s training for Artemis and has already logged more than 200 days in space aboard the International Space Station. The first crewed mission in the Artemis program, called Artemis II, is designed as a similar journey-looping around the moon and flying back, perhaps as early as 2023. For the first time, humans viewed Earth from far enough away to grasp the vast cosmic realm in which our planet exists, and the fragility of our watery little world. Those journeys have also put our planet into context, exemplified by the iconic image “ Earthrise.” Snapped by the Apollo 8 crew on Christmas Eve 1968 as they swung around the moon, the photo captures our multicoloured planet soaring above the drab, cratered horizon. “As an American, as a human being, I just get excited about it.” Fly me to the moonĪ world of its own, the moon is steeped in mystery and mythology, and our forays into its neighbourhood have been captivating-if harrowing-demonstrations of human capability. “As I think about the Artemis program, I think, like anybody, the little kid inside of me just gets super excited,” says NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, an Army combat veteran and special forces doctor who’s on the Artemis roster.
The rest are rookies, drawn mostly from the astronaut classes of 20.
Half the group are experienced fliers, such as Christina Koch, who just set the record for the longest-duration spaceflight for a woman, and Victor Glover and Kate Rubins, who are currently aboard the International Space Station. Of the 18, nine are women-and one of them might well be the first to walk on the moon. But this group is the first to begin preparing for NASA’s 21st-century moon missions. NASA says that more astronauts, including some from international partners, will be added in the future. None of the 18 astronauts has been assigned to a specific Artemis mission yet. “We have a group of people that are working together, not only in the United States, but really in the international community that are going to come together to make this successful.”
It’s dangerous, it’s very complicated,” says NASA astronaut Nicole Mann, a Navy test pilot and combat veteran who will train for Artemis. But those trips are treacherous, and completing them safely takes years of training-which is why NASA’s astronauts are starting to prepare for a possible lunar assignment. Sending humans on a round-trip journey to the surface of another world is perhaps the ultimate achievement for a space program.
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