Photo: Megan Jelinger/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Feeling FOMO after seeingWilliam Shatnerand SirRichard Brandonfly to space? Well, NASA has a solution.
When the space agency sends its Orion capsule into space later this year as part of its Artemis I mission, a flash drive containing the names of anyone who has signed up through NASA’s website (here) will also be along for the ride.
Those who sign up will receive their own “virtual boarding pass” featuring their name and other details about the mission, which will see Orion travel around the moon and back again. Participants will also get a QR code that will grant them access to NASA launches as a virtual guest.
While the names will only be stored on a computer chip inside an unmanned space capsule, it will likely be the closest many will ever (symbolically) get to the moon.
Anyone interested will have to visit NASA’swebsiteand input their name, along with a four- to seven-digit PIN. Signing up is completely free.
Megan Jelinger/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
“All eyes will be on the historic Launch Complex 39B when Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS) lift off for the first time from NASA’s modernized Kennedy Space Center in Florida,” the space agency said on the page.
“Artemis I will be the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to build a long-term human presence at the Moon for decades to come,” they continued.
According toNASA, Orion will be attached to the most powerful rocket in the world, and fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans. The Artemis I mission will be the first of a series of “complex” missions that will lay the groundwork for a manned trip in the future.
The trip to the moon will take several days, and once Orion reaches it, the capsule will stay in orbit for about six days to collect data and allow mission controllers to test the spacecraft’s performance. It will then set a path back to Earth.
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For the second Artemis mission, NASA plans to send astronauts on a different trajectory.
“Using lunar orbit, we will gain the experience necessary to extend human exploration farther into the solar system than ever before,” NASA said.
source: people.com
