Why Go To The Moon? Canadian Astronaut Jeremy Hansen Explains Why He's On The Next Rocket

It's been over 50 years since astronauts last walked on the moon and we haven't been back since, although that could change in our lifetime thanks to one small step involving a Canadian next year.

NASA's Artemis program will send the first crewed mission to the moon in over 50 years sometime in late 2024, and this time a Canadian astronaut will be on the spacecraft. That astronaut is Jeremy Hansen, a 47-year-old former fighter pilot from London, Ont., who was named to the mission earlier this year.

Hansen will fly around the moon on a spacecraft with three others, and if all goes well we could be putting more footprints on the moon with the Artemis missions that follow.

Narcity recently got a chance to sit down with Hansen to talk about his moon mission, and he was clearly excited about representing Canada and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) on the historic flight.

"This is a big opportunity for Canada that has very little to do with me, and has mostly to do with others," said Hansen, adding that the CSA has put in a lot of work to earn his seat on the next rocket.

Still, Hansen is aware that some people will look at the Artemis program and ask a simple question: Why bother going back to the moon?

NASA proved they could put a man on the moon in 1969, and they collected plenty of moon rocks for study between that first visit and their last one in 1972. They also proved that you can walk, run, drive and even golf on the moon. More recently, several countries have landed unmanned spacecraft on the lunar surface. So why do we have to send humans back there again?

"I think it's important to frame it as we don't have to," Hansen told Narcity. However, he says there are "a lot of benefits" to be found from a moon mission, and it's not just about exploring space. It's about rallying a bunch of smart people to solve space challenges that we're also facing right here on Earth, including food and water scarcity. The idea is that if we can figure out how to recycle water and grow food on the moon, we should be able to do it just about anywhere.

Hansen points out that those first Apollo missions were about simply getting to the moon, whereas these new Artemis missions are about staying there. The hope is that humans can build a base on the surface and then a space station in lunar orbit, which would serve as a friendly pit stop for future missions to Mars.

"We're looking at how do we stay (on the moon) and get a foothold in the solar system," he said.

That's where the food and water challenges come in, and where solving those problems could be a big help for people on our own planet. "As we eclipse 8 billion people (on Earth), I see a lot of overlap there," he said. "This is a way to get minds coming together, geniuses coming together to tackle things that we need to tackle anyway."

There's also some hope that we'll find resources on the moon that can be used here on Earth, though that's obviously farther down the line.

Hansen adds that there's still a lot we still don't know about the moon, and a lot we need to work out when it comes to flying today's generation of spacecraft. That's why his Artemis mission will fly around the moon before the next visitors actually land on it.

What is Artemis II supposed to do?

The idea of going to the moon is obviously thrilling, but the actual journey ahead of the Artemis II crew will be pretty intense.

Hansen and three NASA astronauts will be sealed into an Orion space capsule and then launched into orbit aboard the Space Launch System Rocket, the most powerful rocket in the world. The astronauts will orbit the Earth a few times to make sure everything's working, then blast off for a slingshot trip around the moon and back before making a splash landing in the ocean.

Hansen has practiced for missions like this by living in a cave and in a habitat deep under the ocean, but the moon is next-level scary in terms of how far away it is.

"Once we set off to go to the moon, we're committed to the journey," said Hansen. "We pretty much have to survive the whole eight days or nine days after we leave Earth, so it's a big, big commitment and trust in that system that we create."

NASA's done this once before with Artemis I, which sent an unmanned Orion capsule around the moon and back. Hansen and three others will be aboard Artemis II, which will launch as soon as November 2024.

So what scares Hansen most about the trip?

"Nothing right now," he said. "I can't be scared for a year."

He adds that he really tries to embrace the "can-do mindset" of the CSA, which encourages its astronauts to keep trying until they solve a given problem.

Still, that doesn't mean he's blind to the risks of the job. On the contrary, Hansen says he spends much of his time thinking about all the things that can go wrong and preparing for them.

"Every day we're in training or testing, we are talking about all the ways that this can fail and how we could get around it and how it could kill you," he said, adding that he's well aware he'll be "a long way from home" if disaster strikes.

As for life beyond the Artemis II mission, Hansen doesn't want to get ahead of himself. However, he knows the Artemis III plan is to land on the moon, and while that mission is determined to put a woman and a person of colour on the lunar surface, he'd obviously love to be part of that visit as well.

"Personally, I would love to walk on the moon someday," he said. "I'd be excited to go to the Gateway (space station around the moon). I'd be excited to go to the International Space Station. So we'll just see what the future brings."

That future begins in about 12 months when the Artemis II launch window opens in November 2024.