NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) recently announced that a Canadian astronaut will fly as part of the crew of Artemis II. During this mission, scheduled for 2023, an Orion space capsule will perform a circumlunar flight, flying around the moon without landing. This is the first of two crewing capabilities NASA will provide to Canadian astronauts on Artemis missions (under the agreement).
This circumlunar flight will pave the way for the Artemis III mission in 2024, returning astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years. The announcement was made last week (Wednesday, December 16) by Navdeep Bain and Lisa Cambell, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and the chair of the CSA (respectively).
This mission will be a historic event, as only American astronauts have ever traveled beyond Earth orbit, something that has not happened since the last days of the Apollo era in 1972. The mission will also make Canada the second country in the world. make an astronaut around the moon.
The selected astronauts will also have the honor of being part of the mission that sets the record for the farthest human journey beyond the other side of the moon. While Artemis II will be the first of two Artemis missions with a Canadian astronaut, the second will be to the Lunar Gateway once it is assembled (by 2030).
This agreement is in keeping with the longstanding tradition of cooperation between Canada and the United States, which has existed since the earliest days of the space age. In terms of manned space flights, Canada built the Canadarm for the Space Shuttle program. This was followed by the installation of the Canadarm2 on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2001, which played a critical role in the construction of the station.
Which of the Canadian astronauts will be allowed to go remains to be determined, but it will be one of the CSA’s four active astronauts – who were also present at the announcement. They contain:
- Col. Jeremy Hansen: Hansen, a former fighter pilot and Combat Operations Officer (COO) in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), was born in London, Ontario, in 1974. He was selected by the CSA in May 2009, through the 3rd Canadian Astronaut Recruitment Campaign, and is one of 14 members of the 20th NASA astronaut class.
- Jennifer Sidey-Gibbons: Born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1988, Sidney-Gibbons is a former mechanical engineer and assistant professor of internal combustion engines in the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University. On July 1st, 2017 (Canada’s 150th birthday) she was recruited by the CSA as one of two new astronauts.
- Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Kutryk: Born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, in 1982, Kutryk is a mechanical engineer and former RCAF test / fighter pilot. He was also selected by the CSA in 2017 through the fourth Canadian astronaut recruitment campaign.
- David Saint-Jacques: Born in 1970 in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, Saint-Jacques is an engineer and astrophysicist. He is also an adjunct professor of family medicine at McGill University and a former physician and co-chief of medicine at the Inuulitsivik Health Center in Puvirnituq, Nunavik, where he oversaw medical training. He joined the CSA in 2009 as part of NASA’s 20th astronaut class and spent 204 days aboard the ISS as part of Expedition 58/59 (December 2018 – June 2019).
Canada will also be responsible for supplying the Lunar Gateway with its remote robotic system, including the Canadarm3 (a robotic system designed to operate autonomously). The agreement to collaborate on the Gateway was finalized as part of the astronaut agreement and also calls on Canada to provide the Gateway modules with robotic interfaces.
The Canadarm3 will also install the first two scientific instruments on the Gateway. These will be NASA’s Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite (HERMES) and ESA’s European Radiation Sensors Array (ERSA) experiments – which will improve weather forecasting for astronauts. As Dan Hartman, the Gateway Program Manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, said:
“CSA’s contribution to advanced robotics with Canadarm3 builds on our long history of spaceflighting together, enabling us to perform critical long-term durability and maintenance functions, perform general inspections of the remote gateway and associated vehicles and maintenance from outside loads to support our global research initiatives.
“Our efforts for Gateway are well on track to integrate CSA’s robotic system with arm mounts and smaller handy adapters already integrated into individual Gateway modules, including the PPE (power and propulsion element), HALO (residential and logistics outpost) , and international designs of residential elements. “
The Gateway is a central element in NASA’s long-term goal to establish a “sustainable exploration program” of the moon. By 2030, this will include a surface element (the Artemis Base Camp) located in the cratered and permanently shaded South Pole Aitken Basin. NASA plans to launch the first two segments of the Gateway – a Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and a Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) – in 2023.
However, the station will not be used as a temporary habitat for visiting astronauts until other segments are completed by the end of the decade. These are provided by the CSA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Once operational, the Gateway will be paired with a reusable human landing system (HLS) that allows astronauts to travel to and from the lunar surface.
Together with the Artemis Base Camp, NASA and other agencies will be able to send missions to the moon for longer periods of time. In the long term, the Gateway will be combined with the Deep Space Transport (DST) that will enable manned missions to Mars and beyond. Before that can happen, NASA needs to Orion, the Space Launch System (SLS), and other Project Artemis elements for manned missions.
The Artemis II mission is the first time astronauts will go into space with a Orion space capsule, which has also been tested without a crew. As Bain said, the mission will “enable us to continue our tradition as the world leader in space exploration. It is exciting. It’s a start. And it gives us hope for the future in these challenging times. “
In a statement, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine praised the spirit of collaboration that exists between the two space agencies. For example, Canada was the first international partner to commit to the Gateway program last year and one of the first groups of countries to join the Artemis Accords in October. As he said:
“Canada was the first international partner to commit to moving the Gateway forward in early 2019. They signed the Artemis Accords in October, and now we are delighted to formalize this lunar research partnership. This agreement represents an evolution of our partnership with CSA to deliver the next generation of robotics that has supported decades of space missions on the space shuttle and International Space Station, and now for Artemis. “
The first test flight of the SLS and Orion (Artemis I) an unmanned test flight of SLS / Orion is scheduled for November 2021. Artemis III, which will land “the first woman and the next man” on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, is currently scheduled for October 2024. There are doubts that NASA will be able to meet this accelerated timeline, which VP Pence announced in 2019 on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.
Part of the problem is budgetary. At this time, the US Congress has not approved the funding needed only for FY2021 ($ 3.4 billion) to move the project forward. The HLS, which has become indispensable since the Lunar Gateway was prioritized last March, is still in the design phase. NASA announced at the end of April the three companies competing to develop an HLS (SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics).
There is also the SLS, which has suffered multiple delays beyond the date of Artemis I. to be pushed back several times at this point. And with a new administration that will take office on January 20thIn 2021, NASA could be freed from its hard 2024 deadline, which could mean its priorities will shift a bit over the next year.
But one thing that won’t change is the commitment of NASA and its international partners (the CSA, the ESA, JAXA, and maybe even Russia and China) to return to the moon (and lay the groundwork for a permanent human presence.). NASA is also deep in the process of deciding who can be manned first Artemis mission and next.
At the same meeting, NASA presented the astronauts who will be part of the 18-person Artemis team. And as Hansen said, whichever lucky CSA astronaut gets to go on Artemis II will do this on behalf of Canada and the astronaut team as a whole:
“We are all going to work to achieve this goal on behalf of Canada. One of the things that is really important to us as an astronaut corps is that we are a team and that we face these great challenges together. We take care of each other, and it will not be a competitive process, but a process in which we cancel each other out completely. “
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