The tempo of the crew’s training regimen is picking up with the mission set to launch as early as next February.Annie Mulligan/The Globe and Mail
Every workplace has its drama, but for some, the drama comes made-to-order.
Earlier this week, Canadian astronaut Jenni Gibbons and three teammates were ensconced in a mockup of the Artemis II crew capsule, rehearsing for a flight around the moon, when a simulated disaster struck.
A tiny meteoroid slammed into the capsule, piercing its metal hull. With air pressure dropping in their confined quarters – about 100th the volume of the International Space Station – the crew was presented with a challenge.
“Could we get in our suits, do leak checks, save ourselves, and prepare to come home?” Dr. Gibbons said.
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Happily, they managed their predicament within the time allotted. As Colonel Jeremy Hansen’s backup on the Artemis II mission, it’s a procedure that Dr. Gibbons must know inside out.
Now, with the mission set to launch as early as next February, the tempo of the crew’s training regimen is picking up.
“It feels busy right now,” said Col. Hansen in an interview with The Globe and Mail. The Canadian selected for the mission said there are unique demands that come with being part of the first crew to fly in this particular spacecraft.
Canadian astronaut Jenni Gibbons in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Tuesday.Annie Mulligan/The Globe and Mail
“One of the things that might not be obvious to people is that your training aids, your simulators – where you can put in malfunctions and then exercise to see how you’re going to solve it – all of that has to develop with the vehicle,” he said.
It’s just a glimpse of the two-sided coin that is human spaceflight.
When astronauts are part of the equation, it’s not surprising that their safety accounts for the largest share of the cost of the Artemis program − estimated at about US$4-billion per launch. This includes the design and development of a vehicle with a life-support system that can transport a crew of four around the moon and back, and the time and effort spent in training that crew, along with all those who will be working with them back on Earth.
On the other side of the coin is the more ephemeral “why” behind the mission – the personal element that draws public attention to the endeavour and fuels dreams of taking the next step in humanity’s greatest adventure.
The debate over the value of sending humans instead of robots to space is as old as the space program itself, and no one expects it will be resolved by Artemis. But in the meantime, scientists who are working with the mission see an opportunity that they do not intend to squander. Because, while they may be expensive, the Artemis II crew are also assets to research.
Crew instructors and technicians reset the Orion mockup facility for a pressured suit training event.Annie Mulligan/The Globe and Mail
Explorers and guinea pigs
“The human really is the most advanced science tool that we know of,” said Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s chief exploration scientist. The astronauts understand this too, he said. Making the best use of their limited time is a job that scientists have been grappling with since it became clear that Artemis II would include a crew.
“That really helped us hone in on the specific measurements we’d like to make,” Dr. Bleecher said.
From a biomedical perspective, many of those measurements will be passive. Since the early days of human spaceflight, those who fly in space have always had the dual role of explorer and guinea pig. For the Artemis II crew, that means getting poked, prodded and studied just as much as the space pioneers who preceded them.
What has changed is the high-tech nature of some of the medical data gathering involved, in part to conserve room on board the crew capsule and lay the groundwork for future, more ambitious forays into deep space.
Dr. Juliane Gross demonstrates how to use a lighted SCRUM table in the Science Evaluation Room.Annie Mulligan/The Globe and Mail
For example, the flight will include chips with blood samples from each of the crew. These medical avatars will experience the same environment during flight, including microgravity and radiation levels, as the astronauts on board.
Once they return to Earth, the cells living on the chips can be compared with blood draws from the crew to see how accurately the chips convey what was happening in the astronauts’ own bodies.
If the comparison is reliable, then such chips can be flown ahead of future crews to provide individual information about what each astronaut is likely to experience physiologically before they even get to space.
Other biomedical tests seem surprisingly basic, but the sophistication they represent is back on Earth.
For example, during the flight, astronauts will carry a small booklet and lick a designated page each day. After the trip, a molecular analysis of their saliva samples will reveal the changes in their biochemistry as the mission progressed.
“It’s just a little piece of paper – put it on your tongue, take it off, put it in the book, and put it away – but we can measure hormones, viral DNA and all kinds of different things,” said Steve Platts, chief scientist for NASA’s human-research program. “That’s really pretty cool.”
NASA astronauts are in the latest phase of training for their flight around the moon. Along with ground staff, they are running simulations of the Artemis II mission that’s expected to launch in 2026.
When the moon hits your eye
Scientists who study lunar geology are among those who are most enthusiastic about Artemis II. Looking at the moon – particularly the far side – is a key part of the flight plan and a kind of science that simply cannot be done from Earth orbit.
Depending on the trajectory of the capsule when it loops around behind the moon, it’s possible that the astronauts on board will spy portions of the lunar surface that have never been witnessed by human eyes.
“What we’ve done is we’ve looked at the entire moon and we have created a target list for 360 degrees of lunar coverage that’s totally independent of launch date,” said Kelsey Young, who leads the Artemis II lunar-science team. “So, we’ve built out this really large list of ‘Hey crew member, please look at this target, describe it, image it.’ ”
The moon’s surface has been fully imaged by robotic spacecraft already. But the human eye still vastly outperforms any camera for sheer versatility and nuance. Crew members may notice colour variations in some regions of the moon that cameras cannot discern. These, in turn, offer clues to various aspects of lunar formation history. Ultimately, the observations may help to guide the selection of landing sites for Artemis III and beyond.
Jenni Gibbons, left, and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, both Canadian Space Agency astronauts, work in the Orion mission simulator.Ashley Landis/The Associated Press
Unlike the Apollo-era moon missions, science for Artemis II will be integrated with flight operations in real time. This includes a dedicated room next to mission control where scientists will evaluate what astronauts are telling them as they make their observations.
The centrepiece of the room is a spectacular glass table with an embedded touch screen where researchers can gather and manipulate a digital map of the moon to zoom in wherever they like. Never has real space science looked more like a Star Trek prop.
Juliane Gross, a planetary scientist who leads the curation of lunar samples for the Artemis program, deftly demonstrates the table. As her fingers glide across the glass, I ask from where on the moon would she most like to acquire samples. Before I can finish the question, she’s whipped the moon map to a dark patch on the far side, and zoomed in for us to take a closer look.
This is Mare Moscoviense, she explains, first noticed by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 in 1959. It is an especially deep basin that is thought to have flooded with molten material from much deeper within the moon’s interior. A sample from such a location would be a treasure trove for lunar geologists.
It’s moments like this when the passion for the mission is most evident, as well as the bond that has formed between the scientists and the astronauts who will gaze on the lunar disk with their own eyes.
Space suits are displayed outside of Teague Auditorium during an Artemis II media day.Annie Mulligan/The Globe and Mail
The relationship extends to researchers occasionally sitting in for the crew for parts of the training that relate to lunar observations.
This week, lunar geologist Marie Henderson was in another version of the crew capsule, camera in hand, practising taking images of a correctly sized moon on a placard sitting just outside the capsule. The goal was to help determine the choreography for when certain specific shots will be taken by the crew.
“As a planetary scientist, the goal is always to actually go explore the places you have studied. Now, we’re going to send people who can make observations that add to all of the research,” she said. “I get emotional just practising to do it.”
Artemis I is the first step toward an ongoing human presence on the moon. The ambitious international program using NASA’s most powerful rocket ever, aims to send two test flights to the moon before the first human landing since the Apollo missions.
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