NASA is planning the Artemis 2 mission which is scheduled to start in November 2024. This mission will be the first to establish a long-term human presence on the moon and will carry the first woman, person of color, and first Canadian on a lunar mission. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen are the four astronauts on the mission. Reid Wiseman is going to be the commander on the mission and Victor Glover will be the pilot. Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will be mission specialists.  

This is the first moon mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. The Artemis missions are important because they are the basis for NASA’s “moon to mars” approach. The current mission will set the stage for long-term missions to the moon, and later mars. The mission will last ten days and will explore the moon’s surface more than ever before. They will also perform a lunar flyby. 

The astronauts will be on the Orion Spacecraft, which was originally meant to be used on the Ares I mission before it was canceled in 2010. The spacecraft has now been heavily redesigned for use in Artemis 2.   

Jeremy Hanson is also a CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut, not a NASA astronaut, which is important because Canada hasn’t sent many astronauts into space. The fact that there will be astronauts from Canada and the U.S. shows the world that the two countries are friends and that they can work together as partners. Later missions are also expected to have crews from multiple countries, with astronauts representing European and Asian countries.  

The Artemis mission was originally named Exploration Mission-2 and was meant to get samples from an asteroid in lunar orbit. by the Asteroid Redirect Mission. That mission was unfortunately canceled. The missions are called Artemis because the first moon missions were named after the Greek god Apollo. In Greek mythology Artemis and Apollo are siblings, so the Artemis missions will be sister missions to the Apollo ones.  

In the future, NASA will build an Artemis base camp on the moon which will be a place for astronauts on the moon. NASA is also constructing a “Lunar Gateway” which will be in lunar orbit and will be like an International Space Station (ISS) for the moon. The Gateway will be an important outpost and will provide support for future space expeditions and will be a stop on future astronauts’ journeys to Mars.