Humans Return to the Moon: Latest Updates from Switzerland

The Artemis II mission, NASA’s first crewed mission under the Artemis program, launched successfully on Wednesday, April 1, at 6:24 p.m. EDT, with additional launch opportunities running through Monday, April 6. The mission will send four astronauts – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen – on an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon.

The launch marks the first human journey to the Moon since 1972. According to NASA, the mission will test the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems for the first time with humans aboard, paving the way for future crewed Artemis missions.

Switzerland has contributed to the Artemis II mission through the European Space Agency (ESA). Swiss companies made crucial contributions to the European Service Module (ESM), including the secondary structure, control mechanisms for the solar panels, and ground support equipment for assembling the ESM. The ESM supplies the Orion capsule with electricity via its solar panels, regulates the climate and temperature, and stores oxygen and water for the crew.

The Artemis II mission aims to provide new insights into the Moon, its surface structures, and its radiation environment. Studies on the health of the crew will also help scientists better understand the effects of deep space travel on the human body.

During the ten-day mission, the astronauts will fly around the Moon once and then return to Earth. They are expected to receive tens of millisieverts of radiation, more than ten times what most people experience in a year on Earth. Six Timepix chips developed at CERN are onboard to measure the radiation environment inside the spacecraft as part of NASA’s Hybrid Electronic Radiation Assessor (HERA) system.

The HERA system will measure the composition, intensity, and energy of incoming particles in real-time, assessing radiation exposure for both the crew and onboard electronics. Artemis II will travel beyond the protection of Earth’s geomagnetic field, passing through the Van Allen radiation belts and facing higher levels of galactic cosmic rays and solar particle events.

NASA will provide live coverage of prelaunch, launch, and mission events on its YouTube channel, NASA+, and Amazon Prime. The agency will continuously update its Artemis II briefings and mission events page throughout the mission.