Photo: NASA
In February last year, the Perseverance rover landed on Mars. It was carrying a wealth of instruments, a tiny helicopter, our hopes to find traces of life, and three fingernail-sized silicon chips holding the names of 11 million human beings. And now, Artemis I is poised to fly its share of names around the Moon as well.
At the time of writing, it’s believed the first flight of the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule that form the backbone of the new Moon exploration program will take place sometime in April. It will be a dry run, with no actual humans on board, meant to validate the technology.
Just like it did with Perseverance, and several other missions before it, NASA will use Artemis to send civilians, at least in name, on a trip of a lifetime.
This week, the space agency opened the registration books for those willing to have their name carried by Orion on its flight around Earth’s satellite. Just like before, all you have to do is go here, enter your name and a custom PIN code, and a boarding pass (main photo of this piece) will be generated.
The names of the people who sign up for the ride will be carried not on chips, this time, but on a flash drive.
Artemis I is the first integrated flight test of the SLS-Orion assembly. Once at the destination, the spaceship will move around the Moon one and a half times at a distance of 38,000 nautical miles, then head back to Earth where it will make a splashdown.
If all goes well, NASA will start preparing Artemis II, which will take astronauts out there, without actually landing them. That honor will fall on the crew of Artemis III, a mission that should take place in the second half of the decade.
Just like it did with Perseverance, and several other missions before it, NASA will use Artemis to send civilians, at least in name, on a trip of a lifetime.
This week, the space agency opened the registration books for those willing to have their name carried by Orion on its flight around Earth’s satellite. Just like before, all you have to do is go here, enter your name and a custom PIN code, and a boarding pass (main photo of this piece) will be generated.
The names of the people who sign up for the ride will be carried not on chips, this time, but on a flash drive.
Artemis I is the first integrated flight test of the SLS-Orion assembly. Once at the destination, the spaceship will move around the Moon one and a half times at a distance of 38,000 nautical miles, then head back to Earth where it will make a splashdown.
If all goes well, NASA will start preparing Artemis II, which will take astronauts out there, without actually landing them. That honor will fall on the crew of Artemis III, a mission that should take place in the second half of the decade.
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