As the four Artemis II astronauts prepare for their historic moon landing on Monday, Roberta Bondar, Canada’s first female astronaut, said the mission shows continued progress for future space travel.
Speaking to Global News, Bondar said the mission will push humans deeper into space than they have traveled in decades, exposing crews to conditions not seen since the Apollo era.
The mission, known as Artemis II, will send four astronauts to orbit the moon before returning to Earth on April 10, 2026.
The crew, made up of three Americans and one Canadian, will travel more than 400,000 kilometers from Earth – more than any human has ever traveled before – then close the moon and return home.
“People compare this to Apollo 8, but they were very close,” he said.
Bondar said the space will provide scientists with an unusual location, both scientifically and visually.
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“They’re really in deep space, where we’ve never been before,” he said. “They’ll look at the dark moon in a different way and take pictures of the sun in ways we haven’t seen because humans haven’t been there.”
Crews have just passed a new milestone of being closer to the moon than to Earth on their deep space mission.
“The earth is very small and the moon is definitely growing,” said pilot Victor Glover.
Beyond the visuals, the mission is also a test of how the human body responds to long-distance flight.
“They look really good,” Bondar said of the crew. “They have smartwatches now that will be monitoring their body parts, their sleep cycle and other stressors they’re going to face.”
That information will help researchers better understand how to prepare scientists for future deep space missions.
Bondar also discussed the well-documented physical changes that astronauts have experienced in their orbits, including what is often called “bird leg syndrome.”
He said: “Your body removes two liters of blood through the kidneys. In space, you don’t need that much, whereas on Earth you need about five liters because gravity pulls the blood to your legs.”
He said Artemis II is part of a broader effort to improve the way people and technology work together in space.
“They’re trying to look at ways to make these types of jobs not only smart, but safe.”
“These first flights are about trying to understand the technology,” he added. “It’s really early days and learning to do things smarter for the next flight, and the next flight.”
The Artemis II crew is expected to blast off in the Pacific Ocean after the lunar flyby, marking a major milestone in NASA’s mission to return humans to the moon and eventually visit Mars.
Live updates can be followed on the official NASA website, including a series of Orion’s journey into space.
– Via files from The Canadian Press
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