Shooting for the moon Canadian astronaut visits Manitoba ahead of lunar mission By: Erik Pindera Posted: 6:47 PM CDT Wednesday, Sep. 25, 2024

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This article was published 25/09/2024 (745 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

From his Royal Canadian Air Force pilot training near Portage la Prairie to becoming the first non-American astronaut selected for a mission to the moon, Jeremy Hansen has seen much of our world and beyond.

The Canadian Space Agency astronaut will be in Manitoba late Thursday through Sunday to speak with the public and youth about his upcoming role in Artemis II, the first crewed test flight of the Artemis program.

“Once we spend a day in the capsule relatively close to home, we will have the confidence to bring it out into deep space.”–astronaut Jeremy Hansen

The program, which saw its first test flight without a crew in 2022, hopes to ultimately establish a space station in the lunar orbit and build a base on the moon where astronauts are able to live and work for periods of time. It would also help pave the way to explore Mars.

The nine-day NASA-led mission is slated to launch in September 2025. A crew of four — three Americans and Hansen — will test the spacecraft’s systems as it flies around the moon.

It will mark the first flight beyond low-Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.

“Our whole goal is to put this capsule through its paces to make sure it can meet all its design requirements, and to do it in a way where if we do find an issue, we still have a good chance of survival,” Hansen, 48, said in an interview Tuesday.

“So it’s a very specifically designed mission profile, where we’ll spend a day in Earth orbit, checking things out close to home so that if we have a problem, we can come back quickly, and then once we spend a day in the capsule relatively close to home, we will have the confidence to bring it out into deep space, fly it around the moon and bring it back.”

Hansen, a father of three, began his career as a fighter pilot in the RCAF where he rose to the rank of colonel. He was selected to be an astronaut by the Canadian Space Agency in 2009. The mission will be his first time in space.

In another Manitoba connection to Artemis II, Henry Guimond of Sagkeeng First Nation designed the patch Hansen will wear on the mission.

The patch, which is heptagonal and includes drawings of animals, references the Seven Sacred Laws. It includes RCAF astronaut wings, a bow to represent Artemis in Greek mythology, the Big Dipper and North Star.

Hansen plans to spend Saturday at Sagkeeng’s Turtle Lodge, where he will participate in ceremonies to celebrate Guimond, along with lodge leader David Courchene III.

“They’ve done a lot for me, they’ve given a lot … I like how they’ve leaned into the mission, they want to be a part of it, they want to help and, hopefully, their efforts in that vein will help communicate to other Canadians some of the beauty and depth of Indigenous knowledge,” said Hansen.

If the flight is successful, Hansen will become the first Canadian to ever go to deep space, he said, which he called “a dream.”

“But what’s important for Canada is that we’re doing it,” he said.

“We have not just me involved, we have countless people involved in making this a reality, in order for us to be invited to be the second country in the world to send a human to deep space, Canada had to make a significant contribution to the global collaboration that conducts space exploration.”

Hansen pointed to Canada’s developments in space robotics as an example of that work, and why space exploration is important to Canada and its future.

“It drives Canadian innovation, and these innovations help us live better on the planet, but they also drive exports and jobs, they develop a place for our youth to contribute their gifts,” said Hansen.

“There will always be a subset of our population that is inspired by exploration and we want their gifts put to work in designing new solutions for us in the future. We’ll need them, on this planet, as we eclipse eight billion people, we’ll need those solutions and those innovators.”

Hansen is slated to speak to students and members of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce on Friday afternoon, before a presentation to the public at the Manitoba Museum Friday at 7 p.m.

He has another public presentation Sunday at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada at 2 p.m.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca