NASA today announced the crew that will travel aboard Artemis III and we have found one pleasant surprise and another quite unpleasant one. On the one hand, in Artemis II was criticized that there were no European astronauts, despite the very important role of the European Space Agency (ESA) in the development of the engines that propelled the Orion ship to the Moon. A Canadian astronaut was then chosen as the only non-American member of the crew. This time there is a European. However, the announcement is muddied by the fact that no woman’s name has been announced.
The crew. As announced by Jared Isaacman, current NASA administrator, the Artemis III crew will be made up of four people: Luca Parmitano, from ESA, and Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas and Randy Bresnik, all of them from NASA.
No woman. All the astronauts who have walked on the Moon so far have been white men. For this reason, since the Artemis missions began to be considered, NASA has shown a great willingness to compensate. There was talk that the next person to set foot on the Moon will be a woman and the second an African-American person. The program’s first manned mission, Artemis II, It had a representative from each group. On the one hand, Christina Koch and, on the other, Victor Glover.
It was expected that with Artemis III there would be a similar representation. However, while there is one African-American (Andre Douglas), the crew does not have any female astronauts. This has generated a stir in the chats of the YouTube channels in which the announcement has been broadcast.
There is no shortage of candidates. In 2020, NASA advertisement the names of the 18 astronauts who would train to be part of the Artemis program. Half of them were women: Kayla Barron, Christina Koch, Nicole Mann, Anne McClain, Jessica Meir, Jasmin Moghbeli, Kate Rubins, Jessica Watkins and Stephanie Wilson. Therefore, there are more than enough candidates to be able to include at least one in each crew. At the moment, the reasons why there are none among the ranks of Artemis III have not been made known.
Yes there is a European. The Orion capsule, in which the astronauts of the Artemis missions travel, is directed, guided and propelled by a set of engines and instruments for power generation, thermal control and water and oxygen supply called the European Service Module. As its name indicates, this has been developed in Europe. For this reason, there was much criticism that no ESA astronauts flew on Artemis II.
That has been solved by including Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano in the Artemis III crew, who was received with great applause at the NASA press conference.
A whole mission ahead. Contrary to what was initially projected, Artemis III will not fly to the Moon. In fact, it will remain in Earth orbit. It will be there where the docking of the Orion capsule with the human landing system will be tested. SpaceX or Blue Origin (the first, if everything goes well). One or more of these astronauts may also try to move from one ship to another after they dock. It will be a step prior to the real moon landing. A moon landing in which, hopefully, there will be women as originally projected.
Image | POT
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