The Mission Is Under Way： 50 Years In The Making
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Summary
It s been 54 years since the first man walked on the moon, but on April 1st, a new mission to the moon is taking off for the first time since Apollo 17 in December of 1972. To talk more about it, Thrill Plus' own astronaut, Mike Wixson, joins the show to talk about the history of the moon and the plans for a moon base.
Transcript
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December 1972 is a long time ago and that's how long it's been since they had a space mission
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around the moon. That changes on April 1st as candidates Jeremy Hansen is part of a four-person
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astronaut crew taking off on Artemis 2 for an historic mission around the moon. To talk more
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about it, Thrill will be joined by my very own astronaut Mike Wixson. Space case. You've been
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in space a few times i believe that's true yeah yeah uh thanks for sharing that jim i appreciate
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that uh this is cool what's it's very cool i was three years old the last time anybody made an
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attempt to go up to the moon and uh you know i don't recall it with uh such excitement as i do
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this and i always say this i can't tell you how many people jim i've said so we're taking off for
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the moon this week and everybody that i say it to says we are well it's so here's the thing you have
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understand in 1969 when neil armstrong and buzz aldrin they go to the moon the whole world stopped
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for this moon mission that all started with john f kennedy trying to beat the the soviets the
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russians to the moon so they land on the moon which with slide rulers and hand calculators
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and math on a chalkboard like goodwill hunting that's how they did it yeah and then by 1972
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two and apollo 17 they're like yeah that's fine and it's been talked about you had the space shuttle
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you had all these space missions space in low orbit and high orbit is filled with satellites
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and space junk but it's amazing to me it's been so long we're at 54 years since we're back going
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around the moon well our our space missions became very different the very much the onset of the
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space shuttle and space stations uh you know really observing space became more of a mission
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for us and setting up the world with the right satellite telemetry so that we have communications
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and safety and GPS and everything right that became the focus getting to the moon seemed to
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be like one and done okay we're good we did that let's move on so here's where it's different and
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here's what I find fascinating about the geniuses and the scientists behind it is there is a real
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plan to have a moon base yeah to have people actually spend a serious amount of time on a
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moon base on the moon so with the uh the rocket the artemis 2 and the rockets that they're using
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and the technology and the advancements from 1972 this is the big test launch artemis 2 they have
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an artemis 3 artemis 4 they actually land on the moon and start laying the the groundwork and
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planning for the next phase, which is a moon base. Now, there's a few reasons for doing this.
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It's all part of the next steps to getting to Mars. But they also want to be China because
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China's mentioned they could be there in 2030. And once that happened, it had the same push that
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America had in the 1960s with Sputnik and Russia. It's interesting to me that we think getting to
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the moon first still is a really big deal. I mean, let's say America gets there first and then China
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arrives what are we gonna do set up a subdivision there's gonna be property lines i don't know i
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think at that point we're all in it for the same reason uh but you're right this is interesting
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because this and and correct me if i'm wrong jim you're more the the science and space guy i know
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that for sure but this is all about getting the uh journey down pat getting yes getting a test
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underway that shows that we can get around the moon in this fashion like we've never done before
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and hit its orbit and then understand correct anything that needs corrected before they try
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to actually stick the moon as it were yeah so it's 10 days and as the rocket launches it
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circumnavigates the atmosphere around the world into low earth orbit and they use the slingshot
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of gravity to get to the moon it's a million kilometers and they end up traveling over the
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10 days and then they go around the backside the dark side of the moon and slingshot back so once
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they leave the the orbit of the moon it's three days back to earth and then they end up in the
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capsule which goes through earth's atmosphere but it's all it's all part of there's like a whole
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grand plan a master plan learning about the the path to travel to the moon going into orbit like
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high orbit they're calling it on this trip around the moon and then making the steps to get on the
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moon and figure out what it's going to take to put man back mankind back in the moon and put a
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moon base there with actual permanence yeah yes uh and as you point out uh they already are talking
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about what will be in that moon base that it will be survivable for months and months at a stretch
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that research and uh the ability to understand how to get off the moon into other parts of our cosmos
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will become the focus because the the talk the quest to put someone on mars is always with us
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it's it's something huge but we have to be able to pull this off as a species as scientists before
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they can think about getting to mars because chris hatfield had a brilliant interview he's one of the
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the great pilots and astronauts this country's ever produced and he mentioned that they can get
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to mars there's no way to get home that's what i've often heard and that's a terrifying one-way
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trips are never nobody ever books a one-way trip without a huge amount of effort on the other end
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to uh to either launch a new life no no a one-way ticket is always terrifying so
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so this is where you know as a canadian i'm so proud of chris hadfield like jeremy hansen a
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But when Chris Hadfield was on the space station,
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they realized that being in space for a long period of time,
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So when he was there, they had exercise equipment set up
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So when they tested him, when they came back to Earth,
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they found that Chris Hadfield had good muscle mass, good density,
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good fitness levels, and because of that, they have built a piece of exercise equipment
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into the capsule for Artemis II. So it looks like a rowing machine built into the wall
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with handles, and they can do a series of exercises to keep their body strong while
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they're in space for 10 days. They've made some accommodations that are really cool here.
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So this, by the way, is an interesting point, because what they're doing is
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trying to create sustainable life once you're in space. Once you're on the moon,
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you know how does you know what are we going to do to keep people human beings healthy
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in an atmosphere in an environment absolutely set that is is not normal to humans uh that that's an
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evolution that we're trying to make right there and uh it's chris hatfield at the uh at the head
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of that is is wild because you're right he was the most active astronaut he i often used to say
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now there is one hyperactive astronaut but it must be killing him to be in that cat that capsule
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but he kept active the whole time he did he was all about nutrition and all of that while he was
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in space he kept his mind active his body active and they learned so much you know Canada's Chris
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Hadfield gave them so much information so much research from his time to help with the evolution
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to where they are right now and and a lot of the changes a lot of technology that they needed
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these previous astronauts like Chris Hadfield and the other astronauts like you need this you need
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that and so when they were doing the design they knew that something simple they have a proper
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toilet now i was gonna say the astronaut i understand they have real toilets real toilet
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wow and it seems silly but they the previous apollo missions they didn't have that no and i
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think that there's a lot of technology it sounds silly but i would imagine a lot of technology has
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to go into a zero gravity toilet yes you do not want any zero gravity problems no no uh so okay
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So this fascinated me because the other thing that we saw is how far we've come as humanity in the process of doing this.
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You know, there are on this mission for the first time headed to the moon out of North America.
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That's, you know, a mark of where we've come in history, a Canadian.
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So we've combined a mission for the first time going to the moon where two countries are sharing people up there.
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And I love that that becomes the spirit of this, that, okay, experts from other parts of the world will maybe be invited into this process to help create this permanence.
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And here's the one thing that you can't question any of the four astronauts, the vetting process, to even get to the selection stage.
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So they take the best and brightest students, scientists, pilots, and then they have to go through this rigorous mental and physical and educational training even to get close to the.
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So when you see these four, they are the four, the elite of the elite on Earth on Earth.
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Yeah. And both for the Captain Glover, the African-American captain who's going to be piloting the spaceship and everyone else on there on this capsule for Artemis, too.
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I got some stats. You want to hear them? Yes, please.
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NASA's space launch system produces eight point eight million pounds of thrust when it takes off.
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Wow. That's more than Saturn V, the rocket that originally took humans to the moon by almost twice.
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So getting in and the reason for it, getting into that atmospheric pull requires that they line up with a certain speed and accuracy that they haven't had to do before.
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The Orion capsule reenters Earth at thirty nine thousand kilometers per hour and the heat shield can withstand twenty eight hundred Celsius.
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And real quick, that is, by the way, that's the surface of the sun.
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And that's crucial because how many times have you seen the movies and they depict re-entry like, oh, my heat shield is failing?
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Because with the way the math works and math and physics, you either hit it the wrong way and you skip off.
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Well, let's remember that that was a problem aboard the space shuttle, the faithful space shuttle.
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It was all about the heat panels that I think came off in the process.
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The mission travels 384,000 kilometers to the moon.
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As you point out, they're going to do over a million kilometers by the time the journey's over.
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And they're testing long-duration survival beyond Earth's safety zone.
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Because you're not taking bags of fruit and stuff with everything.
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it's doing scientific experiments because if they are going to put people on the moon on a moon base
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all this information they're gathering all helps them like hey we got to tweak this add this remove
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that i love this nasa tweet we're not going back to the moon to plant a flag we're going back to
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stay and then launch into the cosmos from there see now to me that's the interesting thing about
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all of this so we know how much power as you mentioned it takes to launch from the kennedy
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space station in florida the earth's atmosphere into the moon what if they're able to develop and
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get the equipment and launch from the moon how much better would be to launch from the moon
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towards mars and maybe that's what they need to get there and back i don't know because i'm not
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a scientist but it sounds pretty darn smart to me now if anyone's watching and they've ever get a
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chance um i know you're not supposed to like america now but by god the kennedy space station
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in florida is unbelievable damn it's my favorite it's so cool so great now the gemini capsule
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uh they have one where you like it's a a mockable what it was and they have it open you can sit
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sit in it and yeah my wife is not a big human being and she could barely fit i'm like how's
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so crazy did these pilots with a space suit their knees would have been up like this they were
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literally up against themselves for the entire duration i think it's it's unreal you know i had
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you're in outer space, and if you've got an imagination
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And he said, it's okay if you want to stay, but there's a lot of alligators.
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It's the one thing, Mike, in all joking aside, that no matter what country you're from,
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what your political belief, what language you speak, where you're from,
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the fascination of space travel and getting people into space unsustained i mean look at
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all the tv shows and movies that we watch with fascination and all the books we read thinking
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about do you think we could do that someday and now we're getting closer and closer to
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a permanent moon base where people come and go and live there for great lengths of time and
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they're talking about using a small nuclear reactor like they have an aircraft carrier to
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provide the energy and electricity that they need on the moon base and maybe use the moon base as a
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platform to launch into deep space on another note i do believe that plays of dark side of
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the moon are going to increase over the next 10 days by 100 fold uh as we get closer to the
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countdown why don't we do this we'll take you now to the uh to the launch of uh artemis 2
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10, 9, 8, 7, RS-25 engines lit, 4, 3, 2, 1, booster ignition, and liftoff.
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Houston now controlling the flight of Integrity
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Target Milestone, Mission Control Houston seeing good performance on the 4-man engines, Space Launch System core stage.
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Integrity 3 miles in altitude, traveling more than 1,200 miles per hour.
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Mission elapsed time, passing one minute, approaching Max-Q.
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Stan, we have you loud and clear on Ponce de Leon.
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Communication signal transfer confirmed as Integrity and its crew go supersonic.
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Approaching 90 seconds into the Artemis II mission.
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Integrity is 14 miles in altitude, 8 miles down range, traveling more than 2,600 miles per hour.
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1 minute 50 seconds of mission elapsed time, standing by for main engine throttle down
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to 85%, ahead of solid rocket booster separation, expected at the 2 minute 9 second mark.
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We see throttle down, confirmed separation, main engine is throttling up, guidance converged.
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Integrity, guidance converged, performance nominal, upper stage RCS ready.
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Patriotic means looking up for each other and fixing things together.
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True patriotism is being in a country you love, surrounded by people you love, and great weather.
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Being a patriot is being a part of your community and caring for it.
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It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from, patriotism is the one thing we all share.
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It's okay to be critical of government and still be a patriot.
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Of course I'm a patriot. I'm Canadian. It's my home.
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Well, actually, true patriot love is the mission.