When they are not in space or in mission training what do they do?
Do they work long hours or is it a regular 9-5?
Do they travel a lot for press and interviews?
Just wondering what its like after seeing all the Artemis hype
Would you go to the moon with Artemis 4 as a civilian that has won a lottery ticket
Fun hypothetical
Rules:
All risks remain the same in terms of chance of crew loss, radiation exposure, etc
Do you go?
I swear this happens at every hospital I have been to, every other grand round meeting. I don't even remember how the beef starts half the time. At first it was entertaining but now its pissing me off. Already half of the rounds are some wellness bullshit waste of time, I don't need to hear some old ass attending yell about why his department is not getting enough funding or why he doesn't agree with the latest data on Methylene Blue use.
NASA released a document saying they plan on completing over 70 moon landings after Artemis. I was supprised how many upvotes the post got. As much as I would love for this to happen it's really not even remotely plausible. Anyways, that post made me realise this sub has a lot less people that understand the space industry than I thought.
So for those that work in the industry what do you think the future will look like. In my opinion they will scrap the 70+ landing concept when they realise the proposed budget is a joke (although I think the plan was more of a proof on concept than an actual plan). After they scrap it they will probably not continue gate-way as this is already canceled, and I think they realised the effort needed to make it happen is probably not worth what Gateway can deliver. I think they may go down the route of funding smaller private space stations as well as focusing much more on non-human flight. After Artemis, I don't think we will have another moon or mars landing in the next century as the political environment and funding is rapidly shifting away from space travel. Human space flight to the moon and mars are also more for national pride then for anything else, so the juice really isn't worth the squeeze. Not to mention we are very far off from being capable of a return Mars trip. We have been saying we are 10 years away from mars for 50 years now, and are just going back to the moon. I think once USA or China land, that will be the end of human deep space exploration for a very very long time. Robotic exploration will continue. Anyways, that is my bet when taking into consideration the NASA budget and the decommissioning of ISS in a few years.
I really enjoyed the Canada USA team collaboration on this space flight, so it got me wondering will Canada be more involved in the future of human space flight. After I did some digging it seems that this will unfortunately be a rare occurrence.
Canada’s best pathway to space was the International Space Station. Canada contributed major robotics like Canadarm2 and Dextre, and in return Canadian astronauts received opportunities to fly to the ISS. This was Canada’s most reliable astronaut pipeline because Canada had a clear role, and a partnership. But the ISS is planned to be decommissioned around 2030, which removes Canada’s main stable route for sending astronauts to space.
After the ISS is retired, the situation becomes much less secure. NASA wants low Earth orbit to move toward commercial space stations, but those are not guaranteed to give Canada the same role or access that the ISS did. Canada may have to negotiate new seats, or contribute new technology valuable enough to earn astronaut flights. That makes future Canadian astronaut missions far less predictable.
Canada’s next big bargaining chip was supposed to be Canadarm3, which Canada is contributing to the Artemis lunar Gateway program. This gave Canada a role in future Moon missions and helped secure Canadian lunar flight opportunities, including Jeremy Hansen’s Artemis II seat. But Artemis and Gateway plans have shifted and remain politically fragile. If Gateway is delayed, or made less central to NASA’s Moon plans, Canada’s promised role could become less powerful than expected. Already, the investment that they made for Artemis, originally thought to cover two seats, will most likely only cover one, and The Canadian Space Agency has cancelled the lunar rover mission. On top of this Canada and USA relations are souring. Not to mention before all of these changes Canada only selected two people every 10-17 years.
I really would like to see more countries involved in space travel and seeing Canada go up was awesome. But what do you think the future will look like for Canadian astronauts
As someone who has generally supported human space travel, I think the article raised some very valid arguments against it. I have heard many of the counterarguments to human spaceflight before, and I still agree with a lot of the pro-human exploration side. However, this perspective was interesting and, in its own way, valid. I do not think either side of the argument is completely “right.” Both sides make fair points.