Against a backdrop of volatile political leadership, uncertain budgets, and an ongoing pandemic, as well as the many delays that both the SLS and Orion programs have suffered, it is far from certain that Artemis will remain on the right track.

“It was a very expensive case so far,” says Rubio. “But I think it has been proven time and time again that if you do difficult things and challenge yourself as humanity to do the greatest thing, you get closer to each other. It leads us to develop new technologies and new ideas.”

View from the moon

Until The Scientific Objectives of Artemis III, Which was introduced this week, includes collecting more moon rocks and transporting them to Earth. The mission astronauts will also study the impacts of past asteroids on Earth and the Moon and search for chemical compounds beneath the moon’s surface, including water ice. Ultimately, NASA hopes to collect ice on the moon to use to get there Rocket fuel Supplying life support systems with oxygen.

While all of the astronauts who spoke with National Geographic insisted that successfully completing their lunar mission was their first priority, they said that, with luck, they wanted to have some fun there as well.

“I’d definitely like to walk around – you know, try to jump as high as possible,” says Mann. “God forbid, they give us some kind of moon chariot,” Rubio says. “As important as science is, I think everyone in a vehicle like this would like to pull a cake on the surface of the moon.”

According to Meyer, she will fully enjoy the beauty and excellence of seeing Earth from the surface of the moon. “I really hope to attract all eyes of the people on Earth to enjoy this view together,” she says. “The image of the Earth that I received from the International Space Station was very amazing to me, in the sense that you became aware of the fragility of our planet, how beautiful the Earth is, that we need to protect it and that we are all connected.”

But for now, Artemis astronauts are focusing on developing the following.Bold move‘ in the space. And like Mann and her eight-year-old son, they sometimes look at the moon.

“We sit outside a lot and love to look at the stars and the moon – but now I think we look with a slightly different light in our eyes, a slightly different twinkle,” she says. “I hope he sees his mom one day fly and walk on the moon.”

NASA astronauts for the Artemis program:

Joe Just (Astronaut class 2004, 306 days in space)
Kayla Barron (Astronaut Class of 2017)
Raja Shari | (Astronaut Class of 2017)
Matthew Dominic (Astronaut Class of 2017)
Victor Glover (Astronaut class from 2013, currently on board the International Space Station)
Woody Hoburg (Astronaut Class of 2017)
Johnny Kim (Astronaut Class of 2017)
Christina Koch (Astronaut class 2013, 328 days in space)
Kjell Lindgren (Astronaut Class of 2009, 141 days in space)
Nicole Mann (Astronaut Class 2013)
Anne McLean (Astronaut class 2013, 204 days in space)
Jessica Meir (Astronaut class 2013, 205 days in space)
Yasmine Mkbeli (Astronaut Class of 2017)
Kate Robins (2009 Astronaut class, currently on board the International Space Station)
Frank Rubio (Astronaut Class of 2017)
Scott Tingle (Astronaut Class of 2009, 168 days in space)
Jessica Watkins (Astronaut Class of 2017)
Stephanie Wilson (1996 Astronaut class, 43 days in space)

This article was originally published in English on NationalGeographic.com