Nasa’s First Manned Moon Mission in 50 Years to Take Place in 2024

The 2024 Artemis II mission is NASA's first manned mission to the moon in 50 years. It will be a precursor to Mars exploration.

The four-member crew of the United States Space Agency (NASA), has been revealed by the agency. This includes the first woman, first person of colour, and first Canadian to be assigned to a mission around the Moon.

NASA announced Monday that Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch, and Jeremy Hansen would be crewing the Artemis II mission. This will mark the agency's first manned lunar voyage in more than 50 years.

"For the first time in more than 50 years, these individuals -- the Artemis II crew -- will be the first humans to fly to the vicinity of the Moon," Vanessa Wyche, director of the Johnson Space Center, stated in a statement.

This launch is scheduled for 2024. It will only be the second of the Artemis programme, which is a multinational initiative to establish "long-term presence on the moon". In 1972, NASA's Apollo programme saw the last time that a human crew reached the moon.

"This mission paves the way for the expansion of human deep space exploration and presents new opportunities for scientific discoveries, commercial, industry and academic partnerships," Wyche mentioned.

She described the crew as "the best of humanity". The crew includes three space veterans from the US, Glover, Wisemen and Koch. They will all be returning to space for the second time with the Artemis flight.

Koch is known for achieving several "firsts" while in space. She holds the record as a flight engineer for the longest single spaceflight by a woman and was part of the first all-female spacewalks.

Glover will be the first person of color to take part in a lunar voyage. Glover, who was a former senatorial fellow, recently flew 2021's SpaceX Crew-1 mission and served as second in command.

Wiseman was the third American to serve as a flight engineer on International Space Station. He spent 165 days in orbit, and nearly 13 hours as a spacewalker.

Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian astronaut to take part in a lunar flight is joining the Americans. After a distinguished career as a colonel in Canada's Armed Forces, Hansen, an Ontario-born fighter pilot, will make his first space flight.

Wiseman was the third American to serve as the flight engineer for International Space Station. He spent 165 days in orbit, and nearly 13 hours as a spacewalker.

Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian astronaut to take part in a lunar flight is joining the Americans. After a distinguished career as a colonel in Canada's Armed Forces, Hansen, an Ontario-born fighter pilot, will make his first space flight.

They are expected to cover more than 2.2million kilometres (1.4million miles) while looping around the moon. This will be the closest lunar approach since Apollo 17's Apollo 17 mission.

The US astronauts were selected from 41 active astronauts. Canada had originally nominated four candidates. Following Monday's announcement, Joe Biden, the US President, called the astronauts to thank them for their service and to congratulate them.

Their voyage won't include a moonwalk, but the Artemis II trip will take 370,000km (230,000 mi) beyond Earth's surface. This is a marked departure from the past decades when NASA was primarily focused on low-Earth orbit manned exploration.
The International Space Station is, however, only 420km (260 mi) above the Earth's surface.

The astronauts will be demonstrating manoeuvres in space and testing the life-support systems aboard Orion, a partially reusable spacecraft that was designed for manned flight.

NASA will launch another Artemis flight if their mission is successful. This flight will include a landing on Earth's surface.

Artemis III will also carry a female astronaut, and an astronaut of colour. All 12 Apollo astronauts who set foot on the Moon previously were white men.

Glover addressed the issue of unity and disintegration in his Houston remarks on Monday. "I pray that God will bless this mission," the Artemis II crew member said. "But I also pray that we can continue to serve as a source of inspiration for cooperation and peace not just between nations but in our own nation."

Artemis is an initiative that brings together European, Japanese, Canadian and American aerospace agencies.

After several months of delays, the first unmanned mission was launched in November 2022. It completed two lunar flybys and then splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off California's coast.

The manned crew will launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA on Monday, just like the first Artemis mission.

NASA stated that the lessons from the Artemis flights will help NASA prepare for its "next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars".

"The Artemis II crew represents thousands of people working tirelessly to bring us to the stars," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, mentioned in the agency's statement.

"Together, we are ushering in a new era of exploration for a new generation of star sailors and dreams -- the Artemis Generation."

Source: aljazeera.com