If everything goes as planned, at some point at the beginning of next year, four astronauts will shoot in a mission that has been a long time: a return to the moon.
The last time someone visited the moon was in December 1972, when American astronauts generate and Harrison Schmitt walked on the lunar surface, while Ronald Evans previously orbited.
The last time a Canadian visited the moon? Never.
But that will change at the beginning of next year when astronaut Jeremy Hansen, along with his three American crew companions, will surround the moon as part of the Mission of Artemis II, giving him a vision of the furthest side of the moon and the earth unlike any astronaut he has seen before.
Depending on the launch date, astronauts will travel somewhere between 7,400 and 11,000 kilometers beyond the orbit of the moon.
The NASA Artemis program is a return to the moon. Artemis I was an unbeatable test of the new heavy elevation rocket of the space agency, the space launch system (SLS) and its orion spacecraft without reduction, which orbit the moon in 2022.
Now is the time to test the Orion spacecraft with astronauts on board. That flight, Artemis II, is planned by early 2026, with American astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christian Koch, and Hansen.
And Hansen is prepared and pumped to go.
The ‘right things’
Hansen has been training since he was chosen in 2009. But since then, things have changed a little.
He knows much more about the mission, he says, and the training has been consistent from 8 am to 5 pm throughout the week, simulating the releases, to the point that they even sleep in the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
But Hansen is in his element.
“I love these things. And this is what you dream of doing as an astronaut,” he said. “Develop a new vehicle, try things and find things that do not work, and then discover solutions with your team. It’s like solving a puzzle all the time …
“I will be excited to launch and go see the moon and the earth from the perspective of the moon, but I will lose this phase safely when I am behind me.”
One of its favorite parts of training, he says, is the simulator where his “evil teachers” are “presenting scenarios to try to stumble and try to kill us.”
“And we are working on those situations with the team. That is very fun. And it is even more fun when you solve it and survive. That feels really good.”
When asked what is the “right thing”, a term used to describe NASA’s first astronauts, Hansen said: “Teamwork. You can’t go to space alone. If you could, it would have spent a lot of time with my tree house. And an incredible team of people is needed to do something crazy like this.”
Astronaut subjects and scientists
While in the past, Apollo astronauts focused mainly on trying the systems of their spacecraft, this time it is about trying the hardware and themselves.
As NASA says, they will be subject and scientific.
The human body was not destined to be in space. And since the return to the Moon is not just about overcoming another country as it was during the space race of the fifties and 1960, scientists seek to discover what happens to a human body in those conditions.
“Being in space is obviously fun and is beautiful and is moving and stimulating, but it is very bad for you, in a nutshell,” said the Canadian astronaut and doctor David Saint-Jacques, who was in the same kind of astronauts who have, and that spent 204 days in space in 2018-19.
“They have to do all these experiments in themselves. They will be the guinea pigs of many medical experiments.”
But your spacecraft also needs evidence. And at this time, he says, much of what they are doing is testing their limits: “The corners of the envelope,” he says, “so that we can do it in a safe way when our life does not depend on it.”
“Many of our days are filled with that: ‘Ok, let’s try this with the vehicle. Let’s try that with the vehicle,” he said.
All this is racing the way for Artemis III, scheduled for 2027, which will return astronauts to the lunar surface.
‘The best of us’
Hansen has caused a great impression on those around him.
“It is a pleasure to work with Jeremy,” said Jeff Radigan, principal of the main flight of Artemis II at the Johnson Space Center during a press conference on Tuesday. “He is a fantastic astronaut. From time to time, you get a bit of the Canadian accent. And, you know, we can joke about that a bit.”
For the first time in more than half a century, astronauts will soon return to the moon. Nicole Mortillaro de CBC breaks down the preparations for the mission, Artemis II, which will send astronauts to a historical loop around the moon.
Hansen is “one of the most curious people I’ve met in my time here,” he said. “He always wants to know exactly what is happening, and demands a level of rigor. It is not that we are not, rigorous here anyway, but he only adds that little in the upper part that I think is really useful for our flight here.”
Hansen has not been the only hard training. Jenni Sidey-Gibons de Canada, which is Hansen’s support for the mission, has also been working hard. And she also says that he is the perfect candidate for it.
“Jeremy simply embodies, I would say, the best of us. He is such a wonderful person. He is a phenomenal Canadian. He is an excellent leader and I am very happy to be in this mission,” he said. “I think it will make many people really proud.”
His former astronaut classmate echoes that feeling.
“He is a follower as good as a leader when necessary. And I only have to say that it is a good guy to be close,” said Saint-Jacques.
“He is the guy who wants to make a camp trip. He is the guy with whom you want to go to an expedition. It is a type of type with which you want to climb a mountain, and he is the guy with whom you want to give the moon.”
