Arizona ties abound on scientist team picked to aide NASA Moon landing
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Four scientists with Arizona ties will assist with planned Moon landings in 2028. Photo: Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images
When astronauts take small steps in the first Moon landing since the 1970s, some of those steps will be directed by Arizona scientists.
The big picture: NASA's Artemis program plans to land human crews on the Moon in 2028.
- If you've heard about Wednesday's launch of the Artemis probe, that's a different mission sending a crew to orbit the Moon.
- There are five Artemis missions planned, the last two of which will be manned Moon landings.
State of play: Four scientists with Arizona ties are part of the team that'll give Artemis astronauts on-the-ground assistance for their explorations.
- Kristen Bennett is from Northern Arizona University, and Jamie Molaro, Hanna Sizemore and Cathy Weitz work for Tucson's Planetary Science Institute, though they're based outside the state.
Zoom in: Bennett, who specializes in lunar geology and science, told Axios that the team will help develop a plan for the astronauts to do things like collect samples and take pictures during their forays on the Moon's surface.
- They'll also be advising astronauts in real-time while they explore, said Weitz, who also specializes in lunar geography.
The landing site is expected to be at the Moon's unexplored south pole, far from the more equatorial areas visited by the Apollo astronauts, so it's a different type of terrain, Bennett said.
- She said the lunar surface, undisturbed by wind or water, could teach them a lot about the Moon and solar system because it "records a history of all of the impacts and everything that's happened over the past billions of years."
Flashback: This won't be the first time that Arizona scientists assist a Moon landing.
- The Arizona Daily Sun reported on Dec. 2, 1972, that about three dozen people from the U.S. Geological Survey offices in Flagstaff would travel to Houston for service on the Apollo 17 mission.
- They helped with duties like map-plotting, panorama analysis, note-taking and television taping.
Weitz said she's always hoped there would be another Moon landing before she retired.
- "Everything's very real right now. It's definitely a great feeling knowing that we're so close to finally getting humans back on the Moon."