NASA, the american Space Agency is already getting ready for the upcoming manned mission to the moon. This mission is referred as Artemis II moon mission. This will include four total astronauts. Three astronauts will be from United States’ own space agency NASA, however, remaining one astronaut will be from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
On April 3, 2023 in an even NASA will announce the names of all four astronauts who have been selected for the mission. This includes that one astronaut from the Canadian Space Agency. Event for the announcement will take place at 11:00 AM EDT (10:00 AM CDT) on the April 3, 2023. Also according to NASA, further opportunities to interview the crew remotely will be provided as early as April 4, 2023, the very next day of announcement of the crew.
The selected astronauts will be completing their mission aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft. However, this time, this is not a solo flight or few missions to the moon. This time NASA is going back to moon with the long term vision, to settle on the moon. This flight is just a test, as a first step to establish the long term presence of mankind along with scientific equipments on the moon.
This particular mission, which spans over 10 days, will test the Orion Aircraft capabilities, the life support systems which are onboard, also the launch, support and communication equipments and systems back on earth.
NASA had already launched one such mission, which was named Artemis I, however, it was not he manned mission. Artemis I mission launched uncrewed Orion spacecraft, took it as far as beyond the moon, as it flew in an orbit around the moon and than it came back to earth. Artemis I mission travelled total 1.4 million miles during its journey to the moon. After the success of Artemis I, now NASA is confident enough to launch the Artemis II mission as a crewed mission.
According to NASA, through the Artemis missions, NASA will soon land first women and first person of colour to the moon. However, they have not clarified it yet that these will be aboard the Artemis II mission. Also the launch dates of Artemis II mission are also not announced yet. They are most probably to be decided yet.
According to NASA, through Artemis missions they are going back to moon for scientific discovery, long term presence and financial gains. However, NASA, the american space agency will not be alone in this, many more agencies like Canadian Space Agency and more will be the collaborators in the NASA’s Artemis moon missions.
If we compare the NASA’s Artemis program with the Apollo program from more than a half a century ago, this time focus is fortunately totally different. On times of Apollo it was part of space race, it was about, who lands on the moon first and shows the superiority to the world. However, this time it is about scientific discovery, long term presence and financial gains. Let’s hope that these missions can be proved beneficial for the mankind as a whole.
Update (April 4, 2023): NASA have already announced the names of crew members for Artemis-II astronauts. You can know more details about them here: NASA Artemis-II Crew Members