2024 DESTINATION – THE MOON #MissionARTEMIS2

4 astronauts are privileged to go on a mission to the moon in 2024 November; NASA is sending a crew of 4 people to go circle the moon but not land on it. The project is called Artemis II and this will be followed by another mission that aims to send astronauts to the moon in 2025.

The Artemis project started with NASA’s first mission with the Orion Spacecraft – the Artemis I. Mission Artemis-I was the Orion spacecraft’s 25-day trip around the moon and its aim was to go around the moon for 25days and ensure a safe re-entry and recovery. This was all a pre-workout to send humans around the moon for Artemis II.

Artemis I was launched on Nov 16 2022 and Orion made its safe landing on Dec 11, 2022, after its 1.4 million miles trip. The duration was 25 days 10 hours and 53 minutes.

Artemis 2 mission’s main objective is to send four astronauts into a lunar flyby in the first crewed Orion MPCV Spacecraft for a maximum of 21 days.

The Orion spacecraft will be launched into a high Earth orbit for approximately 42 hours. During this time, the crew will check the spacecraft’s life support systems and demonstrate in-space rendezvous and proximity operations using the spent Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) as a target.

The crew aiming for the moon this time are four out of which one will be the first woman to travel beyond the low earth orbit, one will be the first person of color, and one will be the first non-American to travel beyond the low earth orbit.

The first woman on this mission will serve the mission as a mission specialist and she is Christina Koch. Victor J. Glover will be the first person of color and will be the pilot of the mission. Jeremy Hansen is the non-American to join the crew as mission specialist 2 and they all will be accompanied by commander Reid Wiseman. NASA stated that there are chances of adding astronauts to the crew and most probably the astronauts will be representing European and Asian Nations.

Artemis was originally designated as Exploration Mission 2 (EM2) but was renamed after the introduction of Mission Artemis. The now-canceled robotic Asteroid Redirect Mission was supposed to collect samples from a captured asteroid in lunar orbit.

The crew will be launched into space in the SLS block 1 rocket from the Kennedy, LC-39B, and on successful return, it will be recovered by the U.S. Navy in the planned landing site which is the Pacific Ocean.

The success of the mission will be a great step in the study of the moon and will help space scientists reveal more of the moon’s secrets. Let us know what you think about the mission in our comment section.