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NASA is planning to send the first woman and next man to the moon in 2024.
The last time humans visited our closest neighbor was in 1972, so there is a lot of excitement among space fans eager to witness the next landing in a few years.
Work on the ambitious Artemis program is well underway, with NASA working with commercial partners such as SpaceX and Boeing to provide the launch and landing vehicles needed to make the lunar journey.
To keep the project in the public eye and at the same time educate young and old about the next mission, NASA has posted various videos and other interesting trivia online.
A recent campaign involved asking space fans what they would pack for a trip to the moon, with anyone interested in presenting their ideas using the #NASAMoonKit hashtag.
It turns out that the most popular items were a good book, teddy bears and coffee.
NASA this week tweeted a short video (below) showing some of the contributions they received after asking people what objects they would take with them on a mission to the moon.
Good books. Teddy bears. Coffee. ☕
These are some of the more common things found in what people said they would put in their suitcase for them #Artemis trip to the moon. You would include these things in your file #NASAMoonKit? https://t.co/5oa7FNBatM pic.twitter.com/aB8mL7zVh1
& mdash; NASA (@NASA) November 12, 2020
One kid’s kit included a podcast set to share broadcasts about his experiences 240,000 miles from Earth, a rock hammer for exploration, family photos, and a lightsaber for any unexpected Star Wars-like experience.
NASA said astronauts actually have “pretty tight constraints when it comes to their ‘personal preference kit’,” adding that every visitor to the International Space Station, for example, has a space of just 5 inches by 8 inches to 2 inches (12.7cm x 20.32cm x 5.08cm) for the items they want to carry.
NASA’s space launch system
The next manned mission to the moon will be made possible by NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket ever built.
The space agency is currently conducting tests on the central stage of the 212-foot-tall rocket, with the final stages of the so-called “Green Run” test program expected later this year.
A Green Run sees all rocket hardware put through its paces for the first time and in the case of the SLS will include a hot ground fire test with all four stage RS-25 engines running.
SLS is 98.1 meters (322 feet) tall or 5.2 meters (17 feet) taller than the Statue of Liberty. During launch, the rocket will produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust, “equivalent to more than 160,000 Corvette engines,” as NASA claims. This is 13% more than the space shuttle and 15% more than the Saturn V launch vehicle used by NASA for its previous manned missions to the Moon all those years ago.
Hopefully, the first launch of NASA’s SLS rocket will be the unmanned Artemis 1 test flight in November 2021.
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