#nasa artemis program

no words could describe what I was feeling for the entirety of this mission, but this could

Nasa has said it hopes to send astronauts on a ten day trip around the Moon as soon as February.

The US space agency had previously committed to launching no later than the end of April but said it aims to bring the mission forward.

It's been 50 years since any country has flown a crewed lunar mission. Nasa will send four astronauts there and back in ten days to test systems.

The Artemis II mission is the second launch of the Artemis programme, whose aim is to land astronauts and eventually establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface.

Lakiesha Hawkins, Nasa's acting deputy associate administrator said it would be an important momment in the human exploration of space.

"We together have a front row seat to history," she told a news conference this afternoon.

"The launch window could open as early as the fifth of February, but we want to emphasize that safety is our top priority."

Artemis Launch Director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson explained that the powerful rocket system built to take the astronauts to the Moon, the Space Launch System (SLS) was "pretty much stacked and ready to go".

Eight minutes after launch the massive Core stage will separate from the second stage, called the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion System (ICPS), and the Orion crew capsule. Orion's solar arrays will unfurl and begin charging the spacecraft's batteries to provide power when it is not in direct sunlight.

Ninety minutes later ICPS fires its engines to raise the vehicle to a higher Earth orbit, and for the next 25 hours there will be a full systems check.

If everything is in order, Orion will separate from ICPS and there will be a form of "space ballet" between the two vehicles, more prosaically called the Proximity Operations Demonstration.

Astronauts will manually control Orion's manoeuvring thruster to dance toward and away from ICPS. This will be to rehearse docking procedures in order to link up with a landing vehicle for the eventual Moon landing.

Twenty-three hours later Orion's service module carries out a Translunar Injection (TLI) burn - a blast of thrust aiming it at the Moon - before Orion makes its four-day journey, taking the astronauts more than 230,000 miles from Earth.

During the journey the astronauts will be continue to carry out systems checks.

The crew will in some ways be human guinea pigs.

Experiments will monitor how their bodies are affected by space. Scientists will grow tissue samples from the astronauts' blood called organoids both before and after their journey.

The two sets of organoids will be compared to see how the astronauts' bodies have been affected by space, according to Dr Nicky Fox, Nasa's head of science.

"You may be wondering why we are doing all that when we have the actual astronauts, she told BBC News.

"We want to be able to study in depth the effect of the microgravity and the radiation on these samples. I'm certainly not going to dissect an astronaut! But I can dissect these little organoid samples and really look at the difference."

Humanity is going back to the moon!

Today (9th. December, 2020), NASA announced the first 18 astronauts involved in the Artemis programme, which will see the first woman and the next man on the moon.

Meet the team here:

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis-team/

Like–I'll admit I was hoping for a female commander–but that's because I was hoping for either Nicole Aunapu Mann or Anne McClain specifically. Not just... A Woman. I've seen so many people mad that there isn't a woman on this crew, but not that a specific astronaut they like isn't on the crew, they just wanted a woman, they don't care who. But the thing is, putting women on the crew just to have women on the crew isn't feminism–it's a lazy performance to give the illusion of equality.

They chose the best crew for this mission, just like they did for Artemis 2. Every member of this crew is extremely qualified for the job. I highly recommend you go read each of their Wikipedia pages/bios from the agencies–I'd list their career highlights here, but that would probably double the length of this already long post.

I'm certain that Nicole and Anne and everyone else will get their chance for an Artemis mission soon!!! NASA has already said that this program will land women on the moon.

This is the exact same argument that has been going on since the 60s. Neil Armstrong wasn't the first on the moon because he was a civilian–he was first because he was the best for that mission. Sally Ride wasn't on STS-7 because she was a woman–she was there because she was highly skilled in operating the shuttle's Canadarm, a necessary skillset for that mission. Christina and Victor were on Artemis 2 because of their skills as pilots and engineers.

The idea that a direct decision whether or not to have a woman on the crew is made before choosing astronauts is not only ridiculous–It undermines the equal talent, skill, knowledge, and effort put in by all the astronauts. All of the female astronauts who get a crew assignment aren't there because they're ''The best...of the women'' or ''The most qualified for this mission...from the options of women'' They're on a mission because they're the best and most qualified person for the crew. That's it. No limiters. No extra criteria. No ifs, ands, or buts. They're the best.

I'd also like to point out the makeup of the current astronaut corps. NASA currently has 36 active astronauts, consisting of 15 women and 21 men. Nearly 60% of NASA's activite astronauts are men. Now, let's narrow that down even more: after removing the astronauts who are currently in space, who are already assigned to upcoming missions, and those who have just come off of a mission (aka the Artemis 2 crew/SpaceX crew-11), we're left with 25 astronauts–11 women and 15 men.

Out of those 25 eligible astronauts, Randy Bresnik has by far the most flight experience, having logged more than 6,000 hours on 81 different aircraft. The second highest flight time on that list was logged by Artemis 3 backup crew member Robert Hines, who has 3,500 hours of flight time. Out the eligible astronauts, Bresnik has the 3rd highest time spent doing EVAs (notably, both people with more EVA experience are also men), Rubio holds the current record for the longest American spaceflight, and Douglas is the only one of the 25 to have previous experience on an Artemis crew. My knowledge is mainly on NASA, so I don't know exactly how Luca Parmitano compares to other ESA astronauts, but again–read an overview of his career and you'll see that he is extremely qualified.

Now–should we be discussing why it is that women are still outnumbered in most STEM jobs, and why it is that the most qualified people for this mission are all men?? Absolutely. But that's not a problem to take to NASA, nor a burden for this crew to bear. The fact that so many STEM positions are held by men is an issue that goes way deeper into the industry than NASA itself, but, because nasa is such a public organization, they get the anger directed at them. It's always been this way. That's how it worked in the days of the Mercury 13–and that's how it works now with Artemis. We've been having this argument since 1959, and the answer has always been the same: we should be talking about why nasa has more men than women, but at the same time we have to recognize that nasa hires the most qualified people for the job. What we really need to be asking is why is that who's most qualified?

I'd also like to point out, even if the astronaut corps was split exactly 50/50, there will always be missions with all men, and missions with all women. During Apollo when almost all of the astronauts were former military pilots, they were split nearly nearly exactly half & half between the Air Force and Navy. Almost every mission had at least one astronaut from each branch, but Apollo 12 still had an all Navy crew and 15 was all Air Force. Because that's just how it works when you choose people based on experience.

Another thing–just because these 5 crewmembers are men doesn't mean that the female involvement in the mission/program is gone. We all saw how many women were in mission control during Artemis 2. We've come a long way from JoAnn Morgan and Poppy Northcutt sitting in control rooms full of men, and that is something to be celebrated. Charlie Blackwell-Thompson is still launch director. There are women working as flight directors, mission controlers, engineers, scientists, mission planners, trainers, builders, CapComs, and just about every other job you could think of through every level of NASA's team–and the Artemis 3 mission will be no exception. The Artemis 3 crewmembers are just the 5 people who get put out front–a program like Artemis requires effort from tens of thousands of people, who all deserve at least as much recognition as the astronauts. There are more women working on this program–in so many ways, big and small, from every level of the organization–than we even realize.

Something else that people seem to forget is that Artemis is not the only crewed space program. Right now, as I type this, there are 10 people in space, 3 of whom are women. As of right now, there are two women on the International Space Station, and one on the Chinese Tiangong Space Station (Sophie Adenot & Jessica Meir on ISS // Lai Ka-ying on TSS). Jessica Meir is scheduled to take command of the International Space Station next month. Anna Kikina, a female cosmonaut is also scheduled to arrive on the ISS next month. Women have not lost our place in space–in fact, our place is expanding.

The first being: I freaking called it. Months ago. Like tbh before Isaacman got here I had doubts that was actually going happen.