Science Nonfiction

Over Coffee® is on holiday hiatus.  Please enjoy this rebroadcast of one of our top episodes of 2019.  Have a great holiday!
(Photo courtesy of NASA, and used with permission.)

What if you had the opportunity to design missions to the moon?

And what if getting there were just the beginning?

That's the core of NASA's Artemis program.  If this particular project achieves all its goals, astronauts will be working on the moon in less than five years.

Gateway Logistics Element Project Member Matt Wittal is a NASA Mission Design and Planetary Science Systems engineer at Kennedy Space Center.   Gateway, Matt explains, is a lunar orbiter.  In the first phase of the multi-mission Artemis project, the orbiter will get transported up to the Moon.  The ultimate goal: to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024.

And once they get there, it'll be time to explore.  But even exploration of new lunar regions isn't the ultimate goal of Artemis.

Instead, astronauts will be gathering lunar ice--and their experiences back on the Moon may ultimately pave the way for travel to Mars.

Matt explained the phases of Artemis, the goals of the project and what's next.
On this edition of Over Coffee®, you will hear:

How Matt first became interested in space technology;

His journey, from there, into NASA Mission Design;

What will be involved, in the phases of the Artemis program;

What Matt’s currently designing, for NASA Gateway;

The lessons from previous missions, which enable NASA to create Gateway;

Some of the considerations involved in designing for living and staying on the lunar surface;

What happens in 2024, once the astronauts get to the Moon;

 What each of the Artemis missions will be doing;

Some of the technologies that will make Gateway’s operation possible;

Some of NASA’s resources for makers and educators;

What Moon and Mars exploration will mean on Earth;

What Matt considers “the most fun thing” of working on Artemis;

How the process of transporting supplies to space differs, in real life, from science-fiction films;

What it will be like, to be on the Lunar Gateway and explore the Moon;

Additional projects astronauts might conduct, on the Moon, in addition to gathering lunar ice;

Some of the “surprises” we may find, on other planets and in space;

The art involved, in designing missions to the Moon (and ultimately, to Mars);

A timeline for the Artemis mission launches–and an estimate for Mars!