The countdown to NASA’s return to the moon is officially on, with just weeks to the launch of the first in a series of missions that will see human boots back on the lunar surface by 2025.
Ahead of the launch of Artemis I, the US space agency has released a list of items it will send on the SLS rocket and accompanying Orion spacecraft for its journey to Earth’s only natural satellite.
These include 245 silver Snoopy pins, a Shaun the Sheep mascot, a Dead Sea stone and 567 American flags.
The rocket, the most powerful ever built, is scheduled to lift off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on August 29.
NASA said the Official Flight Kit is a cultural and educational “time capsule.”
“Many of the items included in the flight kit are symbols of cultural significance or NASA’s collaboration with STEM-oriented organizations,” the US space agency said. This includes a set of space science badges for Girl Scouts.
A small piece of moon rock from the Apollo 11 mission will also join the ride, along with a patch and bolt from Neil Armstrong’s iconic mission to link the Apollo legacy to the Artemis program.
Shaun the Sheep’s shot was arranged by the European Space Agency (ESA), which built the power module for the mission.
Bizarre: Ahead of the launch of Artemis I, the US space agency has revealed a list of items it will send on the SLS rocket on its journey to Earth’s only natural satellite. These include a Shaun the Sheep mascot (pictured) and 567 American flags
Among the items are 245 silver Snoopy pins (pictured), while a small piece of moon rock from the Apollo 11 mission will also take part in the ride
Four LEGO minifigures (shown) are also included in the official flight kit for the mission
Towering: The giant space launch system (pictured) is scheduled to rocket into space on August 29 as part of a six-week mission that will launch an unmanned Orion spacecraft to lunar orbit and back
ARTEMIS 1 MISSION: SOME ITEMS ON THE PACKING LIST
- 245 x Silver Snoopy Pins
- 1 * Snoopy Zero G Gauge
- 500 x Artemis ‘Medallion’ gold seal stickers for certificates
- 2,775 x Artemis I mission patches
- 1 x Lunar Pattern Button (Apollo 11)
- 567 x American Flags
- 1 x Artemis Program Stamp
- 90 x Girl Scouts Space Science Badges
- 1 x Written offer from Dr. Maria Zuber
- 1 * World Space Week Lapel Pin
- 1 x Sycamore Seed
- 1 x USB flash drive (pictures, drawings, space poems by citizens and students)
- 1 * Dead Sea Pebbles
- 1 x Wrapped Pen Tip & Peanuts Comic
- 1x National Air and Space Museum – Apollo 8 Commemorative Medallion
“This is an exciting time for Shaun and for us at ESA,” said David Parker, Director of Human and Robotic Exploration at ESA.
“We are very fortunate that he was chosen for the mission and we understand that while it may be one small step for a human being, it is one giant leap for a lamb.”
ESA worked with Aardman, the animation studio behind the stop-motion sheep, to arrange the trip.
“Aardman is excited to be making history with ESA by launching the first ‘sheep’ into space,” said Lucy Wendover, Aardman’s Director of Marketing.
“As one of the first astronauts to fly on an Artemis mission, Shaun is at the forefront of lunar exploration, a great honor for our woolly adventurer!
“2022 marks the 15th anniversary of Shaun’s first television series, so what better way to celebrate than by traveling further than any sheep has gone before,” she added.
Shaun isn’t the only pop culture personality boarding the Artemis 1 flight.
A Snoopy doll, modeled after the cartoon beagle, flies as the mission’s zero-gravity indicator, while four LEGO minifigures are also included.
LEGO is a long-time provider of projects and minifigures based on real-world NASA missions, including multiple generations of space shuttles and Mars rovers for kids.
These particular ones are the stars of the educationally focused Build to Launch: A STEAM Exploration Series).
During Artemis I, the Orion spacecraft — built primarily by Lockheed Martin — “will stay in space longer than any spacecraft intended for astronauts without docking with a space station, and will return home faster and hotter than ever,” NASA said.
The mission aims to show that the SLS rocket and the Orion capsule are ready to transport astronauts.
If Artemis I is a success, NASA will send Artemis II on a trip around the moon as early as 2024, this time with a human crew on board.
The Artemis II mission envisages sending four astronauts on a moon flyby for a maximum of 21 days.
A Snoopy doll, modeled after the cartoon beagle, flies as the mission’s zero-gravity indicator
If Artemis I is a success, NASA will send Artemis II on a trip around the moon as early as 2024, this time with a human crew on board
ESA worked with Aardman, the animation studio behind the stop-motion sheep, to arrange the trip
The bolt from one of Apollo 11’s F-1 engines, included in the Artemis I Official Flight Kit
Staff are investigating Artemis I mission patches for the Official Flight Kit
Head to head: NASA’s brand new Mega Moon rocket (pictured left) towers above the Statue of Liberty and costs $23 billion (£19 billion). This is how the SLS compares to the legendary Saturn V rocket (right) that carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon in July 1969
Both missions are test flights to demonstrate the technology and capabilities of Orion, SLS and the Artemis mission before NASA puts human boots back on the moon in about three years.
These include the first woman and the first person of color to set foot on the lunar surface.
Ten shoebox-sized secondary payloads, called CubeSats, will be hitchhiked into space on Artemis I’s SLS rocket, and several other probes will fly inside the Orion spacecraft during flight testing.
Each of the payloads will conduct scientific and technological experiments in space, expanding understanding of lunar science, technological developments and space radiation.
The US space agency is targeting August 18 to taxi the SLS and Orion spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B in Florida. It will provide a live stream on NASA Kennedy’s YouTube channel starting at 6:00 p.m. ET (11:00 p.m. BST).
The launch window is then set to between 08:33 ET and 10:33 ET (13:33 BST and 15:33 BST) on August 29th.
NASA will land the first woman and first black person on the moon as part of the Artemis mission in 2025
Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and moon goddess in Greek mythology.
NASA chose her to embody their path back to the moon, which will see astronauts return to the lunar surface by 2025 – including the first woman and the next man.
Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
Artemis 1 will be the first integrated flight test of NASA’s space exploration system: the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Artemis 1 will be an unmanned flight that will provide a basis for human exploration of space and demonstrate our commitment and ability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.
During this flight, the spacecraft will launch the world’s most powerful rocket and fly further than any human-made spacecraft has ever flown.
It will travel 280,000 miles (450,600 km) from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the moon, over the course of a roughly three-week mission.
Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars. This graphic explains the different phases of the mission
Orion will stay in space longer than any astronaut spacecraft without docking with a space station, and return home faster and hotter than ever.
With this first reconnaissance mission, NASA is taking the next steps in human exploration into space, where astronauts will build and begin testing near-lunar systems necessary for missions to the lunar surface and exploration of other, more distant targets, including of Mars, are needed.
This will put the crew on a different trajectory and test Orion’s critical systems with humans on board.
Together, Orion, SLS and Kennedy’s ground systems will be able to meet the most demanding requirements for crew and cargo missions in space.
Finally, as a result of the Artemis mission, NASA wants to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon by 2028.
The space agency hopes this colony will uncover new scientific discoveries, demonstrate new technological advances, and lay the groundwork for private companies to build a lunar economy.