Humanity Is About To Attempt Something We Haven't Done In Over Half A Century

On December 17, 1972, astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Harrison H. Schmitt, and Ronald E. Evans took off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the Apollo 17 mission. It was a flight full of firsts, as well as one big and slightly depressing last feat for humanity. 

It was the first mission, for example, to take an image of a "full Earth". The flight path was the first to make such a photo possible, giving humanity the iconic "Blue Marble" image.

As well as this, it was the first mission to take a scientist to the lunar surface, in Harrison H. Schmitt. Schmitt was a geologist, and his expertise was needed in collecting rock samples around the Taurus-Littrow valley, near the Sea of Serenity. While the mission was a success, it wasn't the most comfortable experience for him.

"First time I smelled the dust I had an allergic reaction, the inside of my nose became swollen, you could hear it in my voice," Schmitt said at the Starmus space festival in 2019, as reported by the Telegraph. Thankfully, it didn't last.

"Gradually that went away for me, and by the fourth time I inhaled lunar dust I didn’t notice that," he added.

Schmitt was the last astronaut to leave imprints of his feet on the surface of the Moon, as the Apollo program had already been cancelled, essentially due to the enormous cost, as well as a lack of political will to keep the program going. 

"America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow," Cernan said as the crew left the surface. "As we leave the moon and Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.”

And now, over half a century later, we are doing just that. Tomorrow, for the first time since the Apollo program, humanity will set off on a mission to travel beyond the Moon, the final test before NASA returns to the lunar surface.

The countdown for Artemis II has already begun, with NASA beginning proceedings at 4:44 pm EDT on Monday. At 6:24 pm EDT on Wednesday, April 1, weather permitting, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) will take NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a journey over 400,000 kilometers (250,000 miles) from the Earth, as they travel around the Moon. That will be record-breaking, as the furthest any human has ever been from planet Earth. 

The mission is using a "free return" pathway in order to return home. “This is going to be a free-return trajectory," Lakiesha Hawkins, acting deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, explained in a press conference. "We are going to essentially set the course when we do the translunar injection burn on day two to use physics – the Earth and [the Moon’s] gravity – to make sure that we can return the crew without having to make major course-correction propulsion burns." 

This technique has been used before, notably on the Apollo 8 and Apollo 16 missions. 

The mission will see humans travel faster than any humans have ever traveled, as they enter the Earth's atmosphere at an estimated 40,000 kilometers per hour (25,000 miles per hour). That will smash the previous record set by Apollo 10, which saw astronauts including Cernan reaching a top speed of 11,093.8 meters per second (36,397 feet per second), assuming everything goes to plan.      

"While still 400,000 feet – almost 76 miles – above Earth, Orion will begin to feel the effects of the Earth’s atmosphere for the first time since launch," NASA explains. "Within a matter of seconds, superheated plasma will begin to build up around the spacecraft as the friction of the surrounding atmosphere increases. Orion will experience temperatures around 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and communications with the crew will be temporarily blocked by the plasma."

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Before the crew can start setting new records, and enjoy a surprisingly fancy menu, they must launch tomorrow. A previous launch earlier this year was postponed due to issues with helium flow in the upper stage engine. All is looking good for launch tomorrow, with NASA saying that the weather forecast shows an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions. 

All going well, humanity will launch people around the Moon for the first time in over half a century. After that, it's time to walk on its surface once more.

Want to watch the launch? Find out how here.