The last human space flight beyond Earth’s orbit – Apollo 17 – took place in 1972. Now, through the Artemis program, astronauts will venture to the far side of the Moon. This undertaking will require the use of new technologies, some of which were developed in Canada or by Canadians, that could also have a wide range of applications on Earth.
Overview of the Artemis Program
The Artemis program was launched in 2020 with the Artemis Accords, a series of agreements between the United States (U.S.) and eight other countries, including Canada. The Artemis Accords set out principles for peaceful cooperation and exploration of the Moon, Mars, comets and asteroids. The Artemis Accords have since been signed by 29 countries. Among international law scholars, key points of discussion related to the Artemis Accords include security in space, resource extraction and jurisdictional matters. The Artemis Accords also differ from the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (Outer Space Treaty), managed by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. The Artemis Accords were drafted by the U.S., and many signatories to the Outer Space Treaty, including China and Russia, have not signed the Artemis Accords.
The Artemis program is composed of three phases.
- In 2022, Artemis 1 launched an uncrewed flight around and beyond the Moon to test equipment and collect data needed for future crewed flights.
- Artemis 2 is scheduled to launch in November 2024. It will involve a crewed flight, including Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, to the far side of the Moon – the farthest humans have ever been in space – to collect additional test data, as illustrated in Figure 1 below. The crew for Artemis 2 includes the first woman, the first racialized person and the first Canadian to participate in a lunar mission.
- Artemis 3 is slated for launch in December 2025 and will land on the Moon, a feat not seen in over 50 years. Artemis 3’s mission will be to conduct scientific experiments on the lunar south pole, a previously unvisited surface where water ice exists.
Figure 1 – Artemis II: First crewed flight to the Moon since Apollo
Source: Canadian Space Agency, Artemis II: First crewed flight to the Moon since Apollo – infographic.
After these three phases, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to develop a space station in lunar orbit called the Lunar Gateway to assist in future missions and to launch a crewed mission approximately once per year.
Scientific Goals of the Artemis Space Missions
Signatories of the Artemis Accords have committed to sharing scientific data and developing space infrastructure that is widely compatible across different systems and jurisdictions. One of the overarching goals of the Artemis program is to explore the use of lunar resources to produce, for example, food, fuel and building materials for further space exploration.
The Artemis 1 mission served as a test for the systems that will be used in future crewed space flights, including the spacecraft, launch system and supporting ground systems, many of which are developed and operated by private companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin. Artemis 1 also deployed 10 CubeSats – miniature satellites roughly the size of a Rubik’s Cube – to carry out various scientific missions, including taking photographs of the spacecraft’s exterior, studying the effects of radiation on yeast, searching for water ice on the moon and testing deep space communication.
In anticipation of the crewed flights of Artemis 2 and 3, MoonNet, an artificial intelligence system, was launched to the surface of the Moon to identify geological features and hazards and to support planning for future missions. MoonNet was partially funded through the Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program (LEAP) of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Unfortunately, the ispace Hakuto-R lander carrying MoonNet crashed on the Moon and was not able to complete its mission.
During the Artemis 2 flight, the crew will collect data on the craft’s operations with humans on board and its handling capabilities – data that cannot easily be collected on Earth. This data will inform future exploration activities, including docking with orbital stations and measuring proximity to them. In the lead-up to that mission, research is already underway to determine how to support the health of astronauts so far from Earth.
On the Artemis 3 mission, astronauts will attempt to extract water ice from the Moon’s south pole to determine the feasibility of doing so and to determine whether the water extracted could be used to sustain further exploration on the Moon or in space.
Following Artemis 3, NASA and its partners plan to continue missions on and around the Moon and to prepare for human missions to Mars. This will pose several challenges, including long distances and durations, limited crew size and space, few – if any – opportunities for resupply and extended delays in communication. To address these challenges, space agencies and researchers will be required to innovate in areas like engineering, food science and health.
The goals of the Artemis space missions reflect Canada’s objectives in space as set out in the Canadian Space Agency Act, which is “to promote the peaceful use and development of space, to advance the knowledge of space through science and to ensure that space science and technology provide social and economic benefits for Canadians.”
Current Government of Canada Programs Supporting the Artemis Space Missions
In 2021–2022, the CSA had a budget of $368.1 million and 766 full-time equivalent staff. As mentioned earlier, the CSA’s LEAP provides funding for space-based technology and innovation valued at $150 million over five years, starting in 2023–2024. In addition to MoonNet, LEAP is funding the development of a lunar rover by Canadensys Aerospace Corporation and deep learning software by software start‑up Mission Control, among other projects.
Canada’s largest contribution to the Lunar Gateway from a monetary perspective will be Canadarm3, a robotic arm that will support further construction, operation and repair of the gateway. The Mistastin Lake impact crater in northern Labrador has also hosted astronaut training for lunar geology research.
Implications Beyond Space
Beyond the scientific goals related to space outlined above, Artemis and other planned space exploration missions have further implications for research and development on Earth.
Health and Well-Being
Research into supporting the health and well-being of astronauts on long-term space missions is expected to have implications for supporting the health of individuals on Earth. The potential solutions to these challenges could have benefits specifically for the health of individuals in remote, isolated communities. These solutions include:
- food production in environments unsuitable for traditional agriculture;
- healthcare in remote and isolated locations; and
- mental health support for those living in isolation.
Health care innovations driven by the space sector are expected to particularly benefit people living in remote communities, Indigenous peoples and older adults, given the parallels between isolation in space and remote and isolated populations on Earth.
Researchers are optimistic that scientific developments in space may lead to innovations on Earth that will support sustainability goals – such as dealing with water shortages through space water recycling, and further developing geographic information systems to track environmental conditions and disease outbreaks.
Technology
Building Canada’s space-based capabilities is also tied to many of the technologies that support modern life, since space infrastructure is connected to:
- artificial intelligence;
- disaster response;
- financial transactions;
- GPS navigation;
- national security and defence;
- quantum technologies;
- search and rescue;
- telecommunications and Internet connectivity; and
- weather forecasting and environmental monitoring.
Employment
The Moon and other planetary bodies within the solar system are expected to provide important economic gains in the future through job creation and resource extraction. In 2019, the Government of Canada released Exploration, Imagination, Innovation: A New Space Strategy for Canada, which indicated that the space sector contributes $2.3 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product and employs almost 10,000 people in Canada. This document predicted that the global space economy will nearly triple in size over the next 20 years. In Canada, small and medium-sized enterprises account for 83% of organizations with patented inventions in the space sector.
According to the State of the Canadian Space Sector Report, as of 2020–2021, the space sector employed more men than women (71% versus 29%), and an assessment of Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) at CSA noted that “women, Indigenous people, visible minorities and persons with disabilities are under-represented in the STEM field” but that “it was difficult to identify the needs of CSA target populations due to the lack of disaggregated data for the Canadian space sector.” The GBA Plus done as part of the Government of Canada’s Budget 2022 Impacts Report found that “[o]nly 28 per cent of people in the space sector identify as women and the average annual salary in this sector is estimated at $74,000. Therefore, highly-educated and higher-income men are more likely to benefit” from an expansion of Canada’s presence in space, if present employment trends in the sector continue.
By Kelsey Brennan, Library of Parliament
Categories: International affairs and defence