WASHINGTON – The man about to become the first Canadian astronaut to fly around the moon is beginning to realize the magnitude of the undertaking.
“I already knew that going to the moon was difficult,” Jeremy Hansen joked Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida during an update on the Artemis II mission, the first manned flight in the lunar environment in over half a century.
“That’s why we’re doing it – I already knew it was difficult. But man, it’s really more difficult than I thought.”
There was more wonder than apprehension in his voice as he and the three other crew members described their first close-up visit to the systems, equipment, and people who will propel them into space starting in November.
“Seeing the capsule gave us all chills – when we first saw the interior, it was impressive,” he said.
The November 2024 deadline remains intact, according to NASA officials, with the caveat that things could still change given all the different components and variables that need to align for the mission to stay on schedule.
The last time humans traveled so far was during the final Apollo mission in 1972. Artemis II will make Canada and the United States the only two countries to have ever ventured to the far side of the moon.
After orbiting the Earth, the Artemis II crew will travel hundreds of thousands of kilometers and make their way to the other side of the moon before their momentum propels them back home – a journey in the shape of an “eight”.
This mission is actually the first step in the Artemis missions, which aim to land a man and a woman on the moon by 2025, with the eventual goal of sending astronauts to Mars.
That is the ultimate goal, Hansen, a 47-year-old CF-18 fighter pilot from London, Ontario, reminds us. But success is not in the ultimate goal, it’s not in the landing or the launch date: success lies in the learning that occurs, like, right now (…) learning things that will serve us in our ultimate goal, which is going to Mars.”
The three other astronauts on the Artemis II mission are all Americans: mission commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina Hammock Koch.
SpaceX’s Rocket
There is still some apprehension, however, regarding the timelines around Artemis III, the mission that will land on the lunar surface.
NASA will continue to hold onto key subcontractors according to the existing timeline, with a tentative launch date of December 2025, said NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free.
This includes Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is developing a version of its “Starship” rocket to launch the Artemis III crew and its lunar module. A test launch of the Starship rocket failed spectacularly over the Gulf of Mexico last April.
Free admitted that he still had doubts about whether the rocket would be ready by 2025, “because it has not yet been successfully launched.”
“They have to do multiple launches – not just for us, but for themselves. And then they have to do multiple launches for us. So we’re looking forward to seeing them succeed in their launches, starting with the next one.”
There are also issues with the heat shield, which protects the underside of the capsule from infernal temperatures during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
During last year’s unmanned Artemis I test, the shield, designed to burn during re-entry, did so in a less uniform manner than initially predicted by computer models – a mystery that engineers have not yet solved.
“Obviously, we’ll make the right decision to ensure the astronauts’ safety,” Free said. “If that means we have to make a radical decision, then we will. But right now, we’re on track to determine the root cause [of the problem] and then make the final decision from there.”
The mission calls for the capsule to complete two orbits around Earth before going behind the moon, generating enough momentum to bring the capsule back home – the safest way to ensure Artemis II achieves its goals, explained mission commander Wiseman.
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