As the four Artemis II astronauts prepare for their historic flyby of the moon, Canada’s first female astronaut Roberta Bondar says this mission signals a leap in developments for future space travel.
The mission will push humans farther into deep space than they have travelled in decades. The crew, made up of three Americans and one Canadian, will travel more than 400,000 kilometres from Earth — farther than any human has travelled before.
“People liken this to Apollo 8, but they were much closer,” Bondar said. “This flyby will be about 4,000 miles out from the moon, so they’ll be exposed to the background radiation of space and subjected to any solar wind or solar storms.”
The mission is also a test of how the human body responds to space flight over longer distances. The crew has passed a milestone of being closer to the moon than to Earth in their journey.
Source: Global News
Photo: Global News
