Jeremy Hansen will be the first Canadian astronaut to orbit the moon.
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency announced on Monday, April 3, the four astronauts who will become the Artemis II space mission crew. Hansen, 47, joined along with American astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Hammock Koch to be part of the approximately 10-day Artemis II mission.
During the announcement, a smiling Hansen said there are two reasons a Canadian is going to the moon.
The first one would be NASA’s decision to curate an international team on this mission.
“The second reason is Canada’s can-do attitude,” he said.
Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen waves his hand at the announcement of the crew on the Artemis II mission on April 3, 2023. Photo credit: NASA/James Blair
“I am left in awe of being reminded what strong leadership, setting big goals with a passion to collaborate and a can-do attitude can achieve,” Hansen said. “And we’re going to the moon together. Let’s go.”
He also said his participation shows Canada is willing to contribute its values and solutions to the international space exploration partnership.
Artemis II will be the first crewed mission of the program, according to NASA.
“Canada’s participation in the Artemis program will spur the creation of thousands of highly skilled jobs, boost innovation and be a source of national pride for years to come,” Hansen said.
Chris Damaren, a professor at the University of Toronto and the Institute for Aerospace Studies director, said the announcement is key for Canada’s contributions to future space missions.
“It has given Canada a front-row seat for the next big direction in human space exploration to the return to the moon,” Damaren said. “His participation represents the great esteem in which Canada’s contributions to previous space missions are held.”
He said the Artemis program would eventually lead to humans spending extensive time on the surface of the moon.
Damaren said this would be an important precursor to missions to Mars.
American astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Photo credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel
Gordon Osinski, a Western University professor in Earth and Planetary Science, said Hansen’s participation is remarkable for Canada’s achievement in space exploration.
“This will go down as one of the biggest moments in our space program’s history,” Osinski said in an article published on The Conversation.
Osinski has assisted in training astronauts from Canada and the United States in geology for the past 10 years, including Hansen. He is also the principal investigator for the Canadian Lunar Rover Mission.
“This will make Canada only the second country in the world, after the U.S., to send a human to deep space,” Osinski said.
NASA said on its website the crew would carry out a series of demonstrations in the Orion spacecraft while around the Moon. They’re meant to validate the capabilities of humans to live and work in deep space, according to NASA.
Artemis III, the next stage of the program, is currently planned for 2025.
It would mark human’s first return to the lunar surface since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.