[ad_1]
Canada plans to send two astronauts on missions to the moon.
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced on Wednesday, December 16, that a Canadian astronaut will fly around the moon in 2023 on the Artemis 2 mission, the first manned mission in NASA’s Artemis program, which will test NASA’s Orion spacecraft. into lunar orbit to prepare for a landing in 2024. A second CSA astronaut will participate in a post mission to NASA’s upcoming Gateway space station in lunar orbit.
The upcoming flight announcements are part of a broader memorandum of understanding between Canada and NASA, also announced Wednesday, formally committing to collaborate on the Artemis lunar program that Canada said it would commit to nearly 18 months ago.
Related: Canadian astronauts discuss Apollo 11 and Canada’s future in space
Simply put, Canada will provide robotics to NASA, and in return, NASA will give CSA astronauts opportunities to fly lunar missions, potentially with even more astronauts landing on the Moon in the future, officials said at a conference. virtual press.
“This will make Canada the second country after the United States to have an astronaut in deep space … and send the first Canadian around the moon,” said Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry for the Government of Canada. , to journalists at the press conference.
The only people who have ventured out of Earth orbit so far are a handful of American Apollo astronauts, on nine missions between 1968 and 1972, but NASA wants its Artemis program to include broad international participation.
Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques recalled the historic Apollo 8 mission of 1968, which tested some of the major spacecraft systems in lunar orbit prior to the first human landing in 1969, such as the Artemis 2 parallel.
“It’s a mission to test the [spacecraft] equipment and navigation; As you can imagine, navigating from the planet will be one of the biggest challenges, “Saint-Jacques said during the press conference (in French, translated into English). Another challenge that the Artemis 2 astronauts will face is an entry in the Earth’s atmosphere, he added.
Canada will pay for its astronaut seats through its traditional route, which provides useful space robotics to help with NASA missions. Canadarm3, a future robotic arm, will be mounted on the Gateway space station for remote maintenance, even when astronauts are not there.
Canadian robotics giant MDA, which also maintains Canadarm2 on the International Space Station, was awarded a contract last week to establish technical requirements for Canadarm3, which CSA first committed to contributing to the Artemis program in March 2019. The The new arm will be equipped with artificial intelligence so that the robot has some autonomy when performing Gateway scans and possibly helping with repairs.
Canadian moon-bound astronauts have yet to be named, but Canada has a choice of four: Saint-Jacques (who flew to the International Space Station in 2018-19), Jeremy Hansen (selected in 2009 and still awaiting a mission) , and 2017 new recruits Jenni Sidey-Gibbons and Joshua Kutryk, who qualified for full astronaut status in early 2020 after completing standard astronaut candidate training.
In particular, Hansen coordinated the entire 2017 astronaut class training program and acted as a mentor to the recruits, a first for a Canadian that shows NASA’s confidence in Hansen’s work. It also helped with the planning of several recent complicated spacewalks, including the complex procedures associated with the repair and upgrade of a dark matter detector on the ISS known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.
During the press conference, Bains also said that Hansen is a “tremendous ambassador” for Canada in promoting the country’s space strategy to policy makers. Hansen himself also referred to the importance of Canada’s participation in international space missions.
“Setting big targets in space exploration, for example the International Space Station, has strengthened our ability to collaborate, and that same collaboration is necessary to tackle big global challenges like climate change,” Hansen said at the same press conference.
“Canada, in my opinion, has a lot to offer the global community … Space is changing rapidly. The business opportunities are immense. There are even new business opportunities now around human exploration, and even space robotics. I would really love to “Communicate to our Canadian youth, Minister, is that they must know that our future in space is bright. We are drawing on decades of experience and commitment to the main players in this emerging economy. I think it’s visionary. “
“As Canadian astronauts, I think we are particularly proud to represent Canada in this context,” Kutryk added during the same press conference. “We are also proud to have built our core of highly trained and ready professional astronauts here at the Canadian Space Agency, all of whom are ready for these missions and those to follow.”
Canada plans to use its lunar opportunity to test technologies such as rovers on the surface and also to practice geology from orbit. Apollo astronauts historically received part of their geology training in Sudbury, Ontario. and all current Canadian astronauts have participated in work with the Western University of Canada, a leader in space geology that periodically conducts expeditions in the Arctic to practice collecting science in remote settings.
“Scientists in Canada are … really interested in studying the geological record of the moon and the geological processes that formed the surface of the moon,” Sidey-Gibbons said at the same news conference. “That gives us clues not only about how our own moon formed, but it also allows us to know the composition and characteristics of other terrestrial planets in our solar system. We learn about other moons, icy moons of other planets, and even more objects. small. like asteroids. “
Canadian robotics have been in space since the dawn of NASA’s space shuttle program, paying for astronaut seats as they were built. The second space shuttle mission, STS-2 in 1981, successfully tested the Canadarm, which was used for spacewalks and robotic operations for shuttle missions for the next 30 years. Its great success led NASA to invite Canada to form an astronaut program, and the first Canadian, Marc Garneau, flew just three years later, in 1984.
Canadarm2 was mounted on the space station in 2001 and a robotic hand, Dextre, was added in 2008, ensuring Canada’s commitment to human space station missions for decades. Both are still in operation and, later in his career, Canadarm2’s mandate for spacewalk assistance and space station scans was expanded to include help in capturing robotic cargo spacecraft. Canada also began conducting more robotic operations from its own space center in Montreal, rather than in the United States.
While Canada has a crucial contribution to the ISS, its 2.3% financial commitment pales in comparison to NASA’s more giant international partners, Roscosmos, the European Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
As the crew’s trade missions and Artemis missions begin to take shape, more international opportunities seem to emerge, as there are simply more astronaut seats for all missions. But for more than a decade, Canada’s small contribution meant that since the space shuttle retired in 2011, the smallest Russian Soyuz spacecraft only had room to take Canadians into orbit every five to six years. The last two Canadians, Saint-Jacques and now retired astronaut Chris Hadfield, flew in 2018 and 2012-13, respectively.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and Facebook.
