Astronaut Christina Koch believes we can “absolutely” get to the moon by 2024.
In an interview with Digital Trends Live, Koch — who recently completed a 328-day stint on the International Space Station (ISS) — said that getting two astronauts to the moon by 2024 is a “bold goal.”
“But I think bold goals bring about innovative ways of doing business,” she said.
NASA’s Artemis mission seeks to put American astronauts on the moon for the first time since 1972, including the very first woman to set foot on the moon’s surface.
Having a long-term lunar presence would allow more efficient travel to distant parts of the solar system as well as the potential for more discoveries about the moon itself. The planned lunar base would include elements like a vehicle for transporting astronauts around the moon’s surface, some kind of mobile habitation to allow astronauts to travel across the moon for up to 45 days at a time, and a more permanent lunar habitation structure where up to four astronauts could live for short periods.
Koch added that the work and research NASA is doing right now would allow the Artemis mission to succeed, adding that robotics and artificial intelligence could play a key role in the upcoming Artemis missions.
Human-piloted spacecraft were limited about where and when they could land since previous landings were done with the help of the human eye, Koch said. She said that with automated landing, the moon will be opened up in new ways, like being able to explore the South Pole.
Koch said that aside from automated landings, advancements will also allow astronauts to stay for extended periods on the moon in the Artemis missions — something she experienced first-hand on the ISS.
“The future of human space exploration is bright,” Koch said.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.