On December 14, 1972, astronaut Gene Cernan was the last person to walk on the moon. As he was leaving the moon he said “we shall return”. Well, decades later it looks like his statement will come true. After more than 50 years, the Artemis 3 mission will put two astronauts on the moon sometime in 2025.
Subsequent Artemis missions will involve the construction of a space station at the lunar south pole, where astronauts will prepare for the next giant leap for humankind, a trip to Mars. Artemis is a great example of the adventurous spirit of us humans.
The Artemis name follows in the footsteps of the Apollo mission that put people on the moon. Artemis is the Greek goddess of the moon, who was also Apollo’s twin sister.
The mission is being led by Nasa along with three partner agencies — the European Space Agency, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Before the moon landing, however, Artemis 2 will blast off. This is to make sure the spacecraft, which is called Orion, that will go to the moon is up to the task.
In Greek mythology Orion was a great hunter who Artemis placed among the stars in the Orion constellation — which we all know because of the three stars in a row that form his belt. Artemis 1 already tested the launch system for Orion and its navigation system. But next, four astronauts will climb aboard and head for the moon.
The lucky astronauts are the commander Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover, and a Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Artemis 2 will launch in November 2024, and will be flown manually. Its life support systems will also be tested. Artemis 2 will, therefore, not do any exploration. Its job is to test Orion before the lunar mission proper.
Commander Wiseman said in a recent interview: “Our focus is on what we can do to enable our co-workers to operate in the lunar environment, whether it’s on the Gateway outpost [the space station Nasa plans to build in lunar orbit beginning in 2024] or the lunar surface.”
Wiseman is a great name for a commander, don’t you think? I wonder if Nasa is picking the commanders based partly on their names. The name Armstrong, the first man who walked on the moon, certainly inspired confidence.
Wiseman and his fellow astronauts will start their flight with a series of orbits around the Earth, in which they will have 24 hours to test what Orion can do. Once the tests are complete the next task will be “translunar injection”. This will set Orion on a trajectory to take it out of the Earth’s orbit towards the moon.
And once Orion gets to the moon it will loop around it and head into deep space, reaching a distance from the Earth of 368,000km. This will set a new record for distance from the Earth for humans. Orion will then use Earth’s gravity to head home, without the need for another engine burn. It will take four days to travel to and from the moon.
The crew will be carrying out lots of tests during the mission, including measuring their bodies for radiation exposure in deep space.
If everything goes according to plan Artemis 3 will be next. This is the big one as it will put humans on the moon.
The mission, however, is very different from the Apollo missions as it will involve the Gateway Outpost, also called the Human Landing System, which will be in orbit around the moon. Orion will dock there, leaving two of the astronauts, with the other two heading on to the moon, most likely a woman and a man.
They will spend six-and-a-half days on the surface, carrying out various tests and will return to the Gateway Outpost, picking up the two astronauts and then returning to Earth, for the very important splashdown. Artemis 3 is planned for no earlier than December 2025.
Artemis 4 will launch in 2028 and will be the second crewed lunar landing mission. This will start the construction of the Gateway Space Station near the Shackleton Crater at the moon’s south pole, named after polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.
This region was chosen because of the presence of water ice there, which will be used in the Space Station. Let’s hope Artemis 4 doesn’t get stuck in the ice like Shackleton did.
Artemis 5 is planned for 2029 and will be the third crewed lunar landing. It will deliver the European Space Agency’s refuelling and communications module and a Canadian-built robotic arm. It will also deliver a Lunar Terrain Vehicle for driving on the moon.
The big question is who will the astronauts be? On January 10, 2020, Nasa’s 22nd astronaut group was assembled. They were given the nickname the “Turtles”, by the previous group of astronauts, who were named “The 8-balls” by the group before them. This is a tradition dating back to “The Mercury 7” in 1962. The Turtles comprise 18 astronauts, nine men and nine women, and crews for each mission are chosen from this group.
By 2029 Artemis Base Camp will be fully built. It will have three sections: the Foundational Surface Habitat, the Habitable Mobility Platform, and the Lunar Terrain Vehicle. It will support missions lasting up to two months and will test technologies to be used on Mars. The base will likely grow in size for decades, with funding from both government and private sources. Who knows, there might even be a hotel there one day.
The next question will be who is chosen to walk on the moon for the Artemis 3 mission?
Time will tell. And who knows what new discoveries will be made?
I wonder if there might even be a mission to Oumuamua. This is the name given to a mysterious object shaped like a cigar that has been crashing through our solar system since 2017 at a speed of 314,000km per hour. It was spotted by a telescope in Hawaii and the name is a Hawaiian term meaning “a messenger that reaches out from the distant past”.
Scientists can’t agree on what it is, first calling it a comet, then an asteroid but are now using the term “interstellar object”. Some even think it might have an alien origin, coming from the star Vega.
One eminent astronomer, Abraham Loeb, recently wrote: “Considering an artificial origin, one possibility is that Oumuamua is a light sail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment.” It might be very hard to catch.
One thing is for sure, Artemis will bring great science, as we boldly go where yes, you’ve guessed it, no one has gone before.
Luke O’Neill is professor of biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin