Photo: NASA
At the end of this year we'll see whether all the efforts made and the money spent on the Artemis Moon exploration program are worth it. The Artemis II mission will depart for Luna, and even if it doesn't land humans there, it will still prove the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft are safe for humans to use.
If all goes according to plan, 2025 will see the launch of Artemis III, and the actual landing at the lunar south pole. And that will really open the doors for (hopefully) the human colonization of the Moon.
Before all that gets to happen NASA is giving all humans on this planet a chance of reaching the place in the sky before its actual astronauts do.
The American space agency has made a habit of allowing people to send their names along for the ride on extraplanetary missions. Most recently, it shipped the names of no less than 11 million human names to Mars, on board the Perseverance rover.
In October 2024, a mission called Europa Clipper will take off, destination Jupiter's moon Europa, and it too will carry with it the names of human beings – we don't know how many, as the campaign just closed at the end of last year, but we expect updates on that soon.
Just as we stepped into the new year, NASA announced another major such campaign, this time targeting the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER). The machine is part of the Artemis program as well, and also the agency's first rover to be meant for use on the Moon.
It will be deployed roughly in the same area where astronauts will land two years from now, and it will use three spectrometers and a drill to look for signs and traces of water on the lunar surface. It will then analyze them to create a sort of map of the distribution, physical state, and composition of ice deposits on the Moon.
Aside from the scientific tools it will take up there to complete its mission, the rover will also carry with it human names. That's right, NASA just opened a campaign giving people a chance to reach the Moon, at least in name, before Artemis crews.
The Send Your Name with VIPER campaign was announced this week and it will run until March 15. According to NASA, the names collected during this time will be attached to the rover, but it's unclear at this point in what fashion.
All one has to do is visit a specially created website that also gives people a virtual souvenir in the form of a boarding pass for the VIPER mission.
The rover will depart our planet at the end of the year (date is yet to be announced) on board a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. It will be delivered to the Moon by a lander called Griffin Mission One, made by Astrobotic Technologies.
The mission is scheduled to last 100 days, but as we've seen so many times in space exploration, that may be extended indefinitely if the conditions are right.
Before all that gets to happen NASA is giving all humans on this planet a chance of reaching the place in the sky before its actual astronauts do.
The American space agency has made a habit of allowing people to send their names along for the ride on extraplanetary missions. Most recently, it shipped the names of no less than 11 million human names to Mars, on board the Perseverance rover.
In October 2024, a mission called Europa Clipper will take off, destination Jupiter's moon Europa, and it too will carry with it the names of human beings – we don't know how many, as the campaign just closed at the end of last year, but we expect updates on that soon.
Just as we stepped into the new year, NASA announced another major such campaign, this time targeting the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER). The machine is part of the Artemis program as well, and also the agency's first rover to be meant for use on the Moon.
It will be deployed roughly in the same area where astronauts will land two years from now, and it will use three spectrometers and a drill to look for signs and traces of water on the lunar surface. It will then analyze them to create a sort of map of the distribution, physical state, and composition of ice deposits on the Moon.
Aside from the scientific tools it will take up there to complete its mission, the rover will also carry with it human names. That's right, NASA just opened a campaign giving people a chance to reach the Moon, at least in name, before Artemis crews.
The Send Your Name with VIPER campaign was announced this week and it will run until March 15. According to NASA, the names collected during this time will be attached to the rover, but it's unclear at this point in what fashion.
All one has to do is visit a specially created website that also gives people a virtual souvenir in the form of a boarding pass for the VIPER mission.
The rover will depart our planet at the end of the year (date is yet to be announced) on board a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. It will be delivered to the Moon by a lander called Griffin Mission One, made by Astrobotic Technologies.
The mission is scheduled to last 100 days, but as we've seen so many times in space exploration, that may be extended indefinitely if the conditions are right.
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