Nice to see a Canadian astronaut on board this first flight back in more than 50 years.
I wonder if any of them will get assigned to Artemis III, the mission that’s actually supposed to land on the Moon?
Hope he knows how to play a guitar, make s’mores and sing folk songs…
And a woman!
When I found out I couldn’t be the first woman in space, I decided I wanted to be the first woman on the moon, as a grade-schooler in the early 1970s. Not gonna happen, but I sure hope we can have a moon landing when some of the original 12 are still alive. (Especially Buzz Aldrin!)
I couldn’t even pull the “be a woman” thingy off… so in some way you are still ahead of about 4+ billion off peeps
Beats the hell out of building a CO2 scrubber out of duct tape.
It’s worse than the report in May.
The GAO (General Accounting Office) doesn’t think humans will reach the moon until 2027:
Here is the GAO report:
But surely you would believe the experts (NASA) over some bean counters?
The Smarter Every Day guy gives a keynote at the American Astronautical Society, and asks the hard questions about Artemis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoJsPvmFixU
Finally watched Destin’s video (Smarter Every Day); that was really good!
2026 is too optimistic by far, 2028 or 2030 are far more realistic dates.
I would be disappointed, but selfishly (sort of), I have changed my mind.
It would be nice if Artemis happens when my kids are in early grade school age rather than toddlers. Being able to watch the moon landings on live TV in grade school sounds like the most incredible experience, and I’d love that for them.
I am disappointed because I watched, enthralled, all of the Apollo missions as a 10 and 11 year old. Now, at almost 65, I fear that I may never see it happen again in my lifetime. I have no problem seeing this evolve (or devolve, I guess) into a series of delays and eventual loss of interest, only to quietly fade away.
It sounds like they will be slowly preparing the moon as a staging area for interplanetary space travel. The gravity at 1/6 that of earth makes it a much friendlier launching point.
Serious question: unless you’re building rockets or harvesting Lunar resources, is there any benefot to using the moon as a staging area for interplanetary travel?
Obviously 1/6th gravity is nice, but 0 gravity is nicer and we can get that right here in Low Earth Orbit.
And wouldn’t a ship leaving LEO to Mars be more efficient than a ship leaving the Moon for Mars thanks to the Oberth effect? (Although I suppose that may be offset by the fact that you’re starting off moving as fast as the moon does and that you can have your engines topped off there?)
I guess my question is… I understand the appeal of resource extraction or heavy industry on the moon. I don’t understand the appeal of the moon as a staging area, unless you are staging there because you already have industry there.
True, but I think it is a much more arduous task to build a rocket from scratch in a weightless orbital environment than on the lunar surface. Plus, there are other options for use of the lunar surface as well.
I agree, so then what does Lunar Gateway - a space station in orbit around the moon - accomplish?
Forget rocket manufacturing, that’s a few steps down the road - at the very least, why don’t we start with Lunar ISRU? Let’s start with something like water extraction - water is heavy, not needing to drag it out of Earth’s gravity well would be great!
Good question. What does Google say?
The small space station will be a multi-purpose outpost orbiting the Moon and providing essential support for lunar surface missions, a destination for science, and serving as a staging point for further deep space exploration. NASA is working with commercial and international partners to establish Gateway.