2023-08-09 12:40:03
NASA has shown this Tuesday to the press the facilities of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral (Florida, USA), destined for the ships of the program Artemiswhich aims to return to the Moon and then explore Mars with the cooperation of other countries and private companies.
In 2024 the four members of the Artemis II mission will orbit the Moon and the moon landing is scheduled for 2025
“This is real, it’s not a dream,” said the commander of Artemis II, Reid Wisemanpointing to the nave Orionon board of which he will travel in 2024 to the terrestrial satellite to orbit it along with three other companions: the African-American pilot Victor Glover, the mission specialist Christina Hammock Koch –first woman to fly beyond low Earth orbit– and the Canadian specialist Jeremy Hansen.
As of the end of 2025, it is planned to launch the Artemis III mission to land on the moon with a crew on our satellite, and then a later IV. The Orion spacecraft for these missions are also located in the same industrial warehouse as the KSC, together with the associated European Service Module, which has been built by the European company Airbus.
Orion capsule for the Artemis II mission at the Kennedy Space Center. / EFE/Ana Mengotti
Pam Melroydeputy administrator of NASA, highlighted the importance of international cooperation in Artemis, with 28 signatories to the program, and that “precedents and standards of behavior for humans in the solar system will be set.”
For his part, NASA administrator Bill Nelsonexpressed his enthusiasm for the historic Artemis II mission to lunar orbit, the first manned to the satellite in more than 50 years, and specified that “we return” to “learn to live in a deep space environment for long periods of time”.
After more than 50 years, we are going back to the Moon, to a different Moon, and back safely.
Bill Nelson (NASA administrator)
“We’re going back to a different Moon” and “return safely“, with the collaboration of commercial and international partners, declared Nelson, who also pointed out that, if this mission around the Moon is successful, the Artemis III mission will land on the south pole of the satellite.
Space race with China
In this context of returning to the Moon and creating permanent bases on its surface, the NASA administrator acknowledged that the US is in a “space race with China” to get there first: “I don’t want China to get to the South Pole first (of the Moon) and say, ‘It’s ours. Out.’ We want to make sure it’s available to everyone and protect the interests of the international community.”
He also remembered the words by John F. Kennedy and his commitment to space exploration and going to the Moon: “He told us to go to the Moon, not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard. And space is hard. It’s overcoming this harsh environment that sets us apart.” going to fill as discoverers”. “That’s why we’re going back to the Moon and then to Mars,” he said.
Commander Wiseman concurred, noting that the measure of success of Artemis II is being able to later see his colleagues on the lunar surface and the people who will follow in his footsteps by walking to Mars and back to Earth.
Rights: Creative Commons.
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