Imagine a lengthy family road trip, crammed into a minivan with all your belongings, but at a speed of 28,000 km/h without any stops for almost 10 days.
That’s the experience awaiting four astronauts, including Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), as they embark on a journey around the moon in the Orion capsule as part of NASA’s Artemis II lunar mission.
The spacecraft’s launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida could happen as early as Wednesday evening, following a delay of nearly two months due to a hydrogen leak during a wet dress rehearsal. NASA had to postpone a March attempt as well after identifying an issue with the rocket’s helium flow.
The crew, comprising seasoned NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, has undergone extensive training to prepare for the cramped conditions during the million-kilometer trip from Earth to orbit the moon and back.
“They’re going farther than any humans have gone before,” stated astronaut David Saint-Jacques, CSA’s deputy director of the lunar exploration program.
This mission serves as a test flight, providing valuable insights into daily life during a contemporary lunar mission and potential deep space travel in the future, according to Saint-Jacques.
As the astronauts gear up for the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972, here’s a glimpse inside the Orion capsule that will ferry them around the moon.
Orion’s Size and Space
Comparing Orion to a minivan or SUV in terms of size, Saint-Jacques notes that the capsule boasts about 9.3 cubic meters of space, which he emphasizes is more spacious than it appears, especially in zero gravity conditions.
While smaller than Saint-Jacques’ quarters during his 204-day stay on the International Space Station (ISS), which he likened to the size of five or six school buses, the crew of the Artemis II mission had a unique role in designing the spacecraft to suit their needs.
“They will need to take turns gazing out the window,” Saint-Jacques mentioned, “as the view of our planet shrinking away will be quite breathtaking.”
