Less than a year away from a historic trip around the moon, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen says humanity's next missions to further explore space will inspire future generations, just as NASA's Apollo expeditions ignited his passion.
Posted at 7:34 am
Sidhartha Banerjee The Canadian Press
Mr. Hansen will be aboard the Artemis II mission, scheduled for launch in November 2024, the first manned trip to lunar space since the last Apollo mission more than half a century ago.
Although Mr. Hansen, 47, was born several years after the end of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Apollo program, he still remembers the impact of seeing a photograph of American astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the moon was published in an encyclopedia.
“That image is still burned into my brain. As a child, I returned to this site so many times to look at it, and the realization that humans left the earth and walked on the moon was a huge event for me. I turned my cabin into a spaceship and began exploring space in my imagination. I never really gave up on my dream of one day flying in space,” Mr. Hansen said in a recent interview.
“Now that I'm here and about to go into space, I see a direct benefit to our young people in this Artemis generation… and I think that we remind young people today that we “It’s so important to them that we can achieve great things, that we can work together.” »
Mr. Hansen, originally from London, Ontario, will be the first non-American to travel beyond lower Earth orbit. Its mission includes a lunar flyby, performing a figure-eight maneuver around the far side of the moon before returning to Earth. This operation will serve as a precursor to a mission expected to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon in December 2025 or later.
Preparations for the Artemis II mission will continue until launch, which Hansen said remains on schedule. Upcoming events include a simulation of the U.S. Navy's recovery of the capsule from the Pacific in February, which will take place at the end of the eight-day mission.
“We probably have more question marks than you can imagine, and that's because it's a test and development program. You go as fast as you can,” Hansen said. “We don’t just do everything and wait for a start date.”
Mr Hansen's mission will be the first manned flight of the Orion spacecraft and, as with any space mission, the greatest risks are during launch and re-entry to Earth. Unlike aboard the International Space Station, where a shuttle is ready to bring people back to Earth, there is no way to abort the Artemis mission if something goes wrong.
“When you have a problem, you’re far from home,” Hansen said. Once you've set off for the moon, you might be pretty committed to this eight-day journey. So there are some risks, but they are really remote. »
The Canadian astronauts have busy years ahead
Jenni Gibbons, 35, of Calgary, was appointed in November to replace Mr. Hansen if he was unable to make the trip. His understudy will provide him with experience that will position Canada's space program well for future missions, said Mathieu Caron, director of the Canadian Space Agency's (CSA) Astronauts, Life Sciences and Space Medicine Division.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Jennifer Gibbons
Ms Gibbons agreed that her role on the lunar mission – learning everything from launch to landing – is an investment in future missions. “I definitely believe that if Canada decides to invest in boots on the moon, I will be ready, as will everyone in our corps,” she said in an interview.
His compatriot, Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, 41, from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, is expected to travel to the space station in early 2025 on the first mission of the Boeing-built Starliner-1 spacecraft. He will spend six months in space.
That means a busy few years for the country's astronaut corps, but Mr. Caron said it's an interesting problem.
“We are very excited that as a space agency we are facing a big problem where we have exciting missions that we need to support almost simultaneously,” Caron said.
David Saint-Jacques, 53, of Saint-Lambert, Quebec, the only member of the astronaut corps with spaceflight experience, currently serves as the space agency's deputy director, helping to develop Canada's future lunar exploration capability.
There are no plans to add more astronauts, Caron said, and the current four members are medically and technically cleared for a future space mission.
“Our goal is to ensure our astronauts can fly,” Mr. Caron said. In addition to the two announced missions, another Canadian will travel to the International Space Station before 2030 and another will travel to the Lunar Gateway outpost, a small space station that will orbit the moon.
Canada is providing the moon station with the large robotic arm Canadarm 3. It also helps build a small lunar vehicle designed for use at the moon's south pole, as well as a larger utility vehicle on the moon, said Lisa Campbell, president of the ASC.
“We are very excited about human spaceflight, but also about leveraging the benefits of space for Canada,” Ms. Campbell said.