Space mission will improve the lives of Canadians
What will the astronaut experience provide for the Easth?
Four astronauts selected to orbit the moon say the Artemis II mission can help inform how Canada responds to food insecurity, healthcare needs, and climate adaptation in the Arctic.
"How do we actually get eight billion people to row in the same direction and work on these problems? Because these are global problems. We can do great things together. We can do better as a human race. And here's one small example,",said Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian colonel who will join three Americans in space.
The Artemis-II program, scheduled for November 2024, is part of an ambitious plan to establish a long-term presence on the moon, and NASA hopes Ottawa will further increase its spending on the space program.
It would also set the stage for another mission planned for 2025, which would involve operating a vehicle on the surface of the moon and searching for materials that could be turned into fuel and construction materials.
NASA experts estimate that the Artemis program, which successfully sent an unmanned spacecraft around the Moon in November 2022, plans for astronauts to stay on the Moon for a week. This would cost CAD 93 billion through the fall of 2025.
The ultimate goal for the future is to establish a manned outpost in orbit around the Moon for further exploration.
Jeremy Hansen says that scientific research as part of the mission is especially important for Canadians. Astronauts will collect a huge amount of data on climate change and provide experience in extremely remote environments. Hansen believes there is a strong correlation between a sustained presence on the surface of the moon and solving some of Earth's problems.
"If we can't grow food in the Canadian Arctic, how can we expect to do it on the moon and on Mars? These are areas that we can use the inspiration of space to help us bring real benefits to Canadians on the planet and society in general," said the researcher.
For decades, the International Space Station has been the only destination for astronauts. Artemis II will be the first mission with a crew to the moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972, and the four astronauts will be the first people to use the Orion spacecraft, which returned to Earth last December after circling the moon.
