Astronauts, from left, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch at the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday.Chris O'Meara/The Associated Press
Alexander MacDonald is NASA’s former chief economist and the author of The Long Space Age: The Economic Origins of Space Exploration from Colonial America to the Cold War.
What will be, at least for now, the longest single journey in Canadian history has reached its celestial halfway mark.
On Monday, the Artemis II mission and its crew, three NASA astronauts and one Canadian Space Agency astronaut, came around from behind the lunar far side.
Colonel Jeremy Hansen of the Royal Canadian Air Force, raised near Ailsa Craig, Ont., has become the first non-American to ever fly around the moon.
It has been a four-day journey from Earth, with a four-day return journey until the crew splashes down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego on Friday.
By then it will have been a voyage with the equivalent distance of driving from Halifax to Vancouver approximately 193 times.
Artemis II live: Astronauts break distance record from Earth set by Apollo 13 in 1970
Nobody has made this type of journey in space since 1972. The last human mission to the moon was Apollo 17. None of the crew of Artemis II had even been born when that mission happened. Approximately 75 per cent of the entire world today wasn’t born when that mission happened.
For the vast majority of people alive today on planet Earth, this is the first mission to the moon they have experienced as it happens. For the vast majority of people alive today, the only human mission to the moon in their lives to date has had a Canadian on board. In the eyes of the world, Canadians are now leading lunar explorers.
This moment is the culmination of decades of work, investment, and unwavering commitment. Across decades, Canadian astronauts flew on the Space Shuttle and lived aboard, and even served as commander of, the International Space Station. Canadian engineers and scientists built and operated multiple iterations of Canadarms, and Canada was the first to sign an agreement with NASA to be part of Artemis in 2019.
Because of all this, and because Canada and the United States have developed one of the most important partnerships and alliances in the history of the modern world, Canada and Canadians earned the opportunity to be the second nation with a fellow citizen to fly around the moon.
NASA said on Sunday that the Artemis II crewed mission will reach record distances from Earth, surpassing a mark set during Apollo 13 more than five decades ago.
Reuters
We are only beginning to truly consider what this means for the future of Canada, for our space program, for our space industry, and for the role of Canada in the world. If the Apollo program is any measure, the reverberations of Canada’s role in this historic mission may resound for years and decades to come.
Part of this, however, depends on us, and our reaction to this moment. As someone who worked at NASA on the Artemis Program as a Canadian-American, I hope that this mission will become more than an achievement to be celebrated. I hope that it will reignite our passion for exploration and for the stars, and that we will invest in creating opportunities for the next generation to follow after Col. Hansen in engineering, science, and space exploration. If we believe that the world needs more of Canada, then it stands to reason that the rest of the solar system does too.
Perhaps more importantly, however, this should be a moment where our national ambition is expanded and our willingness to take risks increased. Make no mistake, Col. Hansen knew he was taking serious personal risk, for himself and for his family, when he agreed to fly on this mission. He nonetheless did so, because he felt it was important for his country and for the world.
The world continues on as the crew of Artemis II makes its way back from the moon, and that world is arguably the most dangerous it has been in many of our lifetimes. We will need more willingness to take these types of risks, and to make and support hard but important decisions, if Canada is going to rise to the moment and lead across the board, like we are now in lunar exploration.
In the years to come, if we want to truly seize the potential of this moment to become world leaders in the space domain, we will need to continue to make new investments and commitments in space exploration, space defence, and basic science and technology. Right now, however, that is a matter for future discussions, in Parliament as well as around our dorm rooms and dinner tables.
For the remaining few days of this historic mission, as we await the crew’s safe return to Earth, let us find the time to go outside and look up at the moon in wonder and pride at the fact a Canadian has now joined the ranks of humanity’s first lunar explorers, and to ask ourselves how we will ensure that other Canadians will someday go even farther.