NASA is giving people the opportunity to add their names to Artemis I, an unmanned flight test of an SLS rocket upon which the Orion spacecraft will sit. The unmanned Orion space craft will attempt to reach the moon and even travel thousands of kilometers beyond it. This is further than any spacecraft that will eventually carry humans has ever travelled. The entire mission will last for a few weeks and will conclude with the spacecraft splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. The launch is expected to happen sometime in May of this year.
This test will eventually lead the way for the rocket that will land the first woman, and the first person of colour on the moon.
Anybody from around the world can go onto the NASA website (https://www.nasa.gov/send-your-name-with-artemis/) to add their name which will be included on a flash drive that will fly aboard the spacecraft. The spacecraft is expected to arrive onto the launch pad sometime on March 18.
Artemis I is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to build a long-term human presence on the Moon for the future. NASA hopes that this mission will provide a foundation upon which the first flight with crew on Artemis II can build on. This is part of an ambitious plan which will see astronauts returning to the moon with Artemis III. The timeline of these projects will all be based on the success of Artemis I.
NASA on its website stated ‘All eyes will be on the historic Launch Complex 39B when Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS) lift off for the first time from NASA's modernized Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.'
