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Speaker 1: Join the conversation on Facebook like the Kids on page

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Speaker 1: to stay up to date. Up to day, four astronauts

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Speaker 1: are said to launch on the first crude moon mission

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Speaker 1: in decades. It's expected to lift off from the Kennedy

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Speaker 1: Space Center in Florida and the United States at six

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Speaker 1: twenty four pm Eastern time, so that will be after

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Speaker 1: midnight our time, carrying four astronauts on a journey around

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Speaker 1: the Moon. It's historic and it's risky. It will mark

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Speaker 1: the first time astronauts have returned to the vicinity of

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Speaker 1: the Moon in more than fifty years. Joining me on

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Speaker 1: the line is doctor Daniel Canneman, who's with the South

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Speaker 1: African Astrological Astronomical Society. Rather Daniel, very good afternoon, and

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Speaker 1: welcome to the show.

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Speaker 2: Good cat, thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Why has it taken us five decades to have a

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Speaker 1: manned mission returning towards the Moon?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, very good question. I mean, I think that down

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Speaker 2: to political will. For the last five decades, there hasn't

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Speaker 2: been a huge political will to get to the Moon.

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Speaker 2: I think that in Trump's Donald Trump's first term, he

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Speaker 2: made this ambition clear again that he did want to

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Speaker 2: get back to the Moon, and then from there. There's

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Speaker 2: been a lot of you know, financial backing and impetus

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Speaker 2: to get there. But I think there is more than that,

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Speaker 2: because you know, I think that the technology has advanced

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Speaker 2: to the point where where space is a lot more

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Speaker 2: accessible than it was. The advent of commercial spaceflight with

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Speaker 2: things like SpaceX going ups has made space a lot

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Speaker 2: more of a competitive area, and many more countries are

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Speaker 2: getting involved in the space. So the Moon all of

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Speaker 2: a sudden became the next logical step for companies and

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Speaker 2: countries to get to get involved in.

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Speaker 1: It. Is that it's risky because I suppose this will

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Speaker 1: be the furthest we've taken human beings away from the Earth.

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Speaker 1: Explain to me what is likely to happen, because my

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Speaker 1: understanding is that the Artemis too is gonna almost loop

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Speaker 1: around the Earth a few times before actually heading over

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Speaker 1: to the Moon.

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Speaker 2: Yes, so it'll be it'll take off and it'll do

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Speaker 2: two loops around the Earth and then it'll break Earth's

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Speaker 2: gravity and move out towards the Moon. It'll do one

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Speaker 2: loop around the Moon and then return home. So this

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Speaker 2: is this is fairly standard procedure, just just to you know,

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Speaker 2: use a gravitational sling shot they call it to get

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Speaker 2: to wherever you want to go. But why why it's risky?

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Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think that once we're up in

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Speaker 2: space it's particularly risky. Once the capsule is in space

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Speaker 2: and on the way to the Moon, even going around

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Speaker 2: the Moon and coming back, that doesn't hold the greatest risk.

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Speaker 2: I think the greatest risk is probably launch, which we

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Speaker 2: will hopefully see this evening and hopefully everything does go well.

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Speaker 2: But we haven't had the capacity or the capability to

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Speaker 2: send acraft this big into space for fifty years, as

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Speaker 2: we said, so it's all kind of new technology. There's

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Speaker 2: been one test of this SLS launch system and it

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Speaker 2: went well, so we're hoping that the second one does

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Speaker 2: go well too. And then, of course the second risky

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Speaker 2: part is coming back to Earth, so the capsule needs

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Speaker 2: to return the astronauts safely to Earth in a similar

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Speaker 2: way to the Apollo ones. But yeah, those are the

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Speaker 2: highest risks for us right now.

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Speaker 1: In fact, to look back to the risk of launch,

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Speaker 1: this is going to be the third attempt, because they

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Speaker 1: tried in February, they tried in March again and there

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Speaker 1: were delays caused by technical issues with the rocket, including

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Speaker 1: hydrogen leagues and a problem with a helium flow. I

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Speaker 1: imagine you're confident that they've addressed those challenges. Otherwise they

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Speaker 1: would not be attempting again, would they.

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Speaker 2: I imagine. I imagine they're confident. Yes, I think that

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Speaker 2: they have to be. But you know that being said,

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Speaker 2: space does you know? As youlon Moscow said before, space

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Speaker 2: is hard. I think that the sound there is going

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Speaker 2: to be some risk. I think the astronauts are aware

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Speaker 2: of that, and NASA is aware of that. It's very

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Speaker 2: hard to eliminate all risk. So there is an inherent

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Speaker 2: risk in strapping yourself to a very big rocket. But

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Speaker 2: I'm sure they have controlled everything as much as possible

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Speaker 2: to make sure that everything goes well.

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Speaker 1: This evening, Daniel, let's answer this question from Beth. Shall

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Speaker 1: we we have been to the moon, Why do you

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Speaker 1: want to go again?

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Speaker 2: Yes, so I think that there's there's definitely, you know,

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Speaker 2: a few other things in play this time. The first

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Speaker 2: time was a hugely political endeavor. There wasn't a huge

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Speaker 2: scientific interest or commercial interest in getting to the moon.

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Speaker 2: There is still a political component to this. I think

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Speaker 2: America does want to get back to the Moon first

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Speaker 2: before China or someone else does just to establish their

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Speaker 2: superiority in terms of space travel. But this time the

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Speaker 2: plan is to be there longer term and perhaps set

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Speaker 2: up a permanent base on the south pole of the Moon.

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Speaker 2: So there are various reasons people want to do that.

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Speaker 2: Some of them are from a military point of view,

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Speaker 2: but there is also a commercial aspect to this now

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Speaker 2: as rare earth metals and resources on Earth in high demand.

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Speaker 2: If there are minerals we can mine off the Moon

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Speaker 2: and get home or even fabricate things on the Moon,

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Speaker 2: that there can be a huge commercial appeal to this.

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Speaker 2: So there's a commercial backing this time, which there wasn't before,

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Speaker 2: so so that that is something definitely to bear in

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Speaker 2: mind this time.

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Speaker 1: Is there any role for South Africa? I'd know that

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Speaker 1: obviously the observatory does a lot of work in the space.

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Speaker 1: The University of stalinbosh I believe has developed some wonderful

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Speaker 1: technology that has been used by other missions away from Earth.

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Speaker 1: Is there in a role that we are playing with

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Speaker 1: Artemis two or this mission too to go around the

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Speaker 1: Moon again?

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Speaker 2: So as far as I am a where the South

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Speaker 2: African National Space Urgency SANTA has been involved with some

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Speaker 2: of the tracking and the communications with these these projects.

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Speaker 2: So with the previous artemists they were and then with

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Speaker 2: this one they are planning to too. They were involved

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Speaker 2: in in a large project to set up a large

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Speaker 2: antenna for NASA here in South Africa and near Micasontaine.

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Speaker 2: Not for the latest state of that, but but there's

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Speaker 2: definitely an involvement in terms of the communications and that

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Speaker 2: is that. It's very interesting the Telemosh team. I think

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Speaker 2: we're focusing more on on satellites, which is still a

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Speaker 2: very active and growing field, and I don't think we'll

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Speaker 2: be seeing a lot more action from that in the

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Speaker 2: coming years too.

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Speaker 1: How long would they be gone for Daniels should the

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Speaker 1: launch be successful.

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Speaker 2: It's a ten day trip, so there and back okay,

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Speaker 2: not too bad.

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Speaker 1: Not too bad at all, and before you know it,

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Speaker 1: there'll be a Netflix series.

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Speaker 2: I think that's definitely one thing worth noting. This should

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Speaker 2: be spectacular. I mean we've seen it with the SpaceX launchers.

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Speaker 2: We have full color HD live footage these days. We

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Speaker 2: didn't have that in the seventies. There was you know,

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Speaker 2: grainny black and white footage. So we're going to get

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Speaker 2: some incredible shots from around the Moon and there and back,

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Speaker 2: so it should be pretty starting from that point of view.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, Daniel, thank you very much for your time this afternoon.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Daniel Kanamar is the Science Engagement Astronomer at the

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Speaker 1: South African Astronomical Observatory, talking to us ahead of the

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Speaker 1: ARTEMUS two launcher, which hopefully will happen at six twenty

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Speaker 1: four pm Eastern time in Florida. That will be after

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Speaker 1: midnight South African time. It will carry four astronauts on

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Speaker 1: a journey around the Moon. The crew will include NASA's

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Speaker 1: red Wiseman Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with their

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Speaker 1: Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and they could break

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Speaker 1: the distance record set by the Apollo program, traveling further

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Speaker 1: from Earth than any other human being ever has