The Artemis II crew which will make the first crewed flight to the moon (and, hopefully, back!) will be announced Monday by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. The four person crew will consist of three NASA astronauts and one Canadian.

Story link: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...moon-astronauts

Artemis II is currently scheduled for November, 2024, so just shy of two years away. Of course considering some of the delays that Artemis I went through, it could be early 2025 before Artemis II actually launches.

Still, humans back to the moon will be exciting, whether NASA does it first or whether the privately funded SpaceX moon mission does it first aboard a Starship flight with the Japanese fashion guy and his crew. Story link: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/worl...-scn/index.html

Starship has yet to even make an orbital flight, so that potential lunar mission is, no pun intended, still very much up in the air.

So, at this point I’m not sure who I’d put my money on making it back to the moon first.

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
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That's an interesting bet. Artemis has already flown, but the program has historically moved at a snails pace. I can't remember offhand if Artemis 2 will have the same hardware configuration as Artemis 1. If it does, that will help it to launch close to the projected date.

SpaceX seems to make large advancing leaps quickly, then pause for a while if you are only a casual observer of hardware tests. However, if you watch the Starbase Live video feeds, you can see they move at a very steady and quick (for spaceflight) pace. You can see obvious progress on a daily basis on anything from launch pad mods and repairs to assembly and movement of Starship components.

SpaceX's biggest problem is that Musk normally does basically the opposite of Engineer Montgomery Scott. He announces optimistic timelines instead of conservative ones:


From Star Trek III

Kirk: How much refit time till we can take [the Enterprise] out again?

Scotty: Eight weeks, sir. (as Kirk opens his mouth) But you don't have eight weeks, so I'll do it for ya in two.

Kirk: (considers) Mr. Scott. Have you always multiplied your repair estimates by a factor of four?

Scotty: Certainly, sir. How else can I keep my reputation as a miracle worker?


From STNG

Geordi La Forge: Look, Mr. Scott, I'd love to explain everything to you, but the Captain wants this spectrographic analysis done by 1300 hours.

[La Forge goes back to work; Scotty follows slowly]

Scotty: Do you mind a little advice? Starfleet captains are like children. They want everything right now and they want it their way. But the secret is to give them only what they need, not what they want.

Geordi La Forge: Yeah, well, I told the Captain I'd have this analysis done in an hour.

Scotty: How long will it really take?

Geordi La Forge: An hour!

Scotty: Oh, you didn't tell him how long it would 'really' take, did ya?

Geordi La Forge: Well, of course I did.

Scotty: Oh, laddie. You've got a lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker.

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I love sanding.

It will be a close call between the two moon missions.

And yes, I can't recall either whether the Artemis II config is close to Artemis I or not. The fact however that humans will be aboard this next mission may negate to some degree any 'been there, done that' familiarity of the Artemis I mission. Mission management will likely be even MORE conservative with launching just because of the added 'human element' concerns. There will be even MORE eyes on that mission than Artemis I, that is if the SpaceX moon crew hasn't gone there first and stolen some of their 'thunder' of being the first humans back to the moon in over 50 years. And it does seem that Musk is, many times, overly optimistic in what they can do in the short run.

Will be interesting to see though who makes it there (and back...) first!

Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

I don't know what else will be different, but I believe this mission will just be a free return mission, similar to Apollo 13's flight path, that will only take about 10 days to complete.

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I love sanding.

Yes, I believe that is correct. But with humans aboard we all know how much more attention there is to safety and just plain PR stuff. That *could* push a bit more convservatism in mission ops.

Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

Commander Data to Commander Scott : " It is GREEN ! "

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, TURMOIL, FIASCOS, and HAVOC !

Earlier in this thread a question came up about the Artemis II launch vehicle configuration. I *think* the configuration for that mission will follow the "SLS Block 1B Crew" configuration shown in the attached graphic; vehicle shown third from left.

Earl

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

I just read the Block 1 vehicle will do the first three launches, including Artemis III, which is supposed to rendezvous with a Starship for lunar landing.

The Block 1B vehicle is supposed to be the Artemis IV and V vehicle, projected for 2028 and 2029.

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I love sanding.

Still live on the NASA channel, but here is who was named as the crew:

"The Artemis II crew includes commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. Hansen is a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut flying under an agreement between the U.S. and Canada. He will be the first non-American to leave Earth orbit and fly to the moon."

I grabbed the above quickly from here: http://www.collectspace.com/news/ne...-moon-crew.html

Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

...and NASA's press release on same.

Link: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...w-under-artemis


Earl

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970