In 2024 the next man and the first woman will set foot on the moon | Carlos Garcia-Galan, NASA - a podcast by Web Summit

What will it take to get humans back on the moon? It’s been almost 50 years since humankind set foot on the satellite’s surface, and NASA is gearing up for a return, according to Carlos Garcia-Galan, the head of European Service Module (ESM) Integration at NASA. He is working specifically with the Orion spacecraft in the Artemis programme.

The launch of Artemis I is planned for the first half of 2022. It will be an uncrewed test, set to orbit the moon. A crewed test mission will be sent to orbit next year. By 2024 (or thereabouts), we can expect to see people land on the moon. 

But why all the testing? Simply put, the spacecraft needs to withstand the hostile environment of space, including a temperature of up to 2,800 Celsius upon re-entry. That’s twice the heat of flowing lava.

Carlos Garcia-Galan was speaking on the DeepTech stage at Web Summit 2021. Here are some links to the images he mentions: the Orion spacecraft; a view of Earth from Mars as taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover.

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