A Sheep, A Dog And Four Tiny ‘Humans’ Are About To Go To Space As NASA’s Moon Mission Prepares For Blast-Off

Science A Sheep, A Dog And Four Tiny ‘Humans’ Are About To Go To Space As NASA’s Moon Mission Prepares For Blast-Off Jamie Carter Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I inspire people to go stargazing, watch the Moon, enjoy the night sky New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Aug 25, 2022, 08:00pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Shaun The Sheep in front of a model of the Orion/European Service Module spacecraft.

being used on . . .

[+] the Artemis-1 mission. ESA/Aardman Two much-loved characters and some LEGO minifigures have been assigned to NASA’s Artemis I mission to the Moon. Shaun The Sheep and Snoopy are scheduled to lift-off during a two-hour window that opens at 8:33 a.

m. EDT on Monday, August 29. If all goes to plan they’ll flyby the Moon and eventually return to Earth in the Orion spacecraft 42 days later.

This won’t be Snoopy’s first trip to space, having orbited Earth in a Space Shuttle in 1990. Snoopy will go to space this time as a visual indicator when a spacecraft has reached the weightlessness of microgravity. Interior cameras will capture the moment when Snoopy floats.

Snoopy’s association with NASA goes way back. During Apollo 10—the dress rehearsal for Apollo 11 that did everything but land on the lunar surface—the lunar module was named “Snoopy” and the command module “Charlie Brown” after Snoopy’s companion. Since 1978 “Charlie Brown” has been on display at the Science Museum in London .

Snoopy, the Zero G Indicator for the Artemis I mission, being loaded into the Orion spacecraft ahead . . .

[+] of launch. NASA/Kim Shiflett Taking “one giant leap for lambkind” will be a plush doll of Shaun The Sheep, a stop-motion comedy character from Aardman Animations in the U. K.

Shaun is originally from the Wallace & Gromit movies and more lately the star of his own spin-offs. 2019’s “A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon” has Shaun meet a visitor from outer space. What do you think? One Community, Many Voices.

Be the first to comment comments posted on Forbes. Add your voice now. Join the Conversation He was “assigned” to Artemis-1 by the European Space Agency (ESA), which is supplying the power-providing European Service Module (ESM) for the mission.

The doll has been a regular on the parabolic flights that astronauts use to experience weightlessness. There’s a blog about his preparations for the mission. “Shaun’s mission assignment rounds off the first phase for the latest members of our astronaut corps, with Italian ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti currently on the International Space Station for her second mission, and before we introduce our new astronauts from the 2021 call for selection later this year,” said Dr David Parker, ESA’s Director for Human and Robotic Exploration.

Snoopy and Shaun will have company on the uncrewed test mission. As part of Build to Launch: A STEAM Exploration Series, LEGO Education SPIKE™Prime minifigure . .

. [+] characters will travel to space aboard the Orion spacecraft. Business Wire/LEGO As part of a collaboration with NASA on Build to Launch: A STEAM Exploration Series , two astronauts called Kate and Kyle will fly o Artemis-1.

They feature in a 10-week STEAM digital learning series. LEGO City minifigures Julia and Sebastian will also fly. More important passengers on Artemis-1 are three slightly larger human-like figures.

“Commander Moonikin Campos” will test the Orion Crew Survival System spacesuit and relay readouts from sensors collecting data on acceleration and vibration levels. Meanwhile, Helga and Zohar—two less foully-formed mannequins—will occupy the other seats in the capsule in the Orion crew module. They will test radiation levels.

A view of Moonikin “Campos” secured in a seat inside the Artemis I Orion crew module atop the Space . . .

[+] Launch System rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 3, 2022. Artemis I will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration and demonstrate NASA’s capability to extend human present to the Moon and beyond.

The primary goal of Artemis I is to thoroughly test the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft’s integrated systems before crewed missions. Under Artemis, NASA aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon and establish sustainable lunar exploration. Photo credit: NASA/Frank Michaux NASA/Frank Michaux Artemis 1 will test NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon planned for 2024 (Artemis-2) and 2025 (Artemis-3).

Artemis-3 will see NASA land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . Check out my website or some of my other work here .

Jamie Carter Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.