This Saturday (20) marks the birthday of 55 years since the first human being set foot on the Moon with NASA’s Apollo program. However, more than five decades after the program was discontinued, no one has stepped foot on the satellite again.
The last astronauts to reach the Moon did so in 1972, and the next ones are getting closer to repeating that feat, according to NASA.
A Artemis mission aims not only to take humans back to the Moon this decade, but also to send women and people of African descent to the satellite for the first time.
When are we going back to the Moon?
NASA carried out the first phase of the program, without astronauts on board, in December 2023. Artemis I was an unmanned test mission that sent NASA’s Orion capsule on a 1.4 million-mile (2.25 million km) trip around the Moon.
The space agency considered the mission a success and is still working to review all the data collected.
On Thursday (22), the United States carried out the first landing on the moon in more than 50 years, with the Odysseus module, nicknamed “Odie”, without a crew.
“Odie” was launched by a SpaceX and NASA rocket, with the aim of evaluating the lunar environment before manned missions to the Moon under the Artemis program.
According to the initial planning of the American agency, the second part of the mission, Artemis II was scheduled to take place in 2024 — on a manned flight, however, without landing on the Moon — and the next phase, Artemis III for 2025 — this one with astronauts stepping on the Moon again.
But we already know that this will not happen within the planned timeframe.
Schedule delays
In January of this year, NASA announced delays to the Artemis mission schedule.
According to the space agency, Artemis II is not expected to lift off until 2025. The journey is estimated to last about ten days and send the crew beyond the Moon, potentially further than any human has traveled in history, although the exact distance has not yet been determined.
After circling the Moon, the spacecraft will return to Earth for a landing in the Pacific Ocean.
This results in the delay of the Artemis III mission, which will not take place before September 2026, according to NASA estimates.
Much of the technology the mission will require, including spacesuits to walk on the moon and a lunar lander to transport astronauts to the surface, is still under development.
The main reasons for the delay include SpaceX’s prospects for developing Starship, the giant rocket and spacecraft system that is expected to carry astronauts to the moon’s south pole. Two Starship test flights in 2023 ended in explosions.
The astronauts who go to the moon
The list of astronauts confirmed for the Artemis II mission has already been released by NASA: Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman.
Christina Koch 44, is a veteran of six spacewalks. She holds the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman, with a total of 328 days in space. Christina is also an electrical engineer who has helped develop scientific instruments for several NASA missions. She also spent a year at the South Pole, an arduous sojourn that may well prepare her for the intensity of a lunar mission.
Jeremy Hansen was selected to be an astronaut nearly 14 years ago, but is still waiting for his first flight mission. The 47-year-old fighter pilot recently became the first Canadian to be tasked with training a new class of NASA astronauts.
Victor Glover a 46-year-old naval aviator who returned to Earth from his first spaceflight in 2021, after piloting the second crewed flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and spending nearly six months aboard the International Space Station. The veteran of four spacewalks earned a master’s degree in engineering while working as a test pilot.
Reid Wiseman served as a Flight Engineer aboard the International Space Station for Expedition 41 from May to November 2014. During the 165-day mission, Reid and his crewmates completed more than 300 scientific experiments in areas such as human physiology, medicine, physical sciences, and astrophysics.
See images from the Apollo 11 mission
Source: CNN Brasil
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
