La Jornada: Data from Artemis II will allow us to delve deeper into human resistance in space: researcher

With her eyes closed, Christina Koch tries to walk on the carpet. As soon as he takes a step, he staggers. Two assistants observe her movement and support her to prevent her from falling. His body has not yet finished readapting to Earth’s gravity.

“I guess I’ll have to wait a minute before surfing again,” Koch wrote on his Instagram account when sharing the video, after his participation in the Artemis II mission, in which the human-manned flight reached one of the greatest distances in space, moving 406,778 kilometers from Earth.

The scene illustrates one of the most immediate effects of space travel: the disorientation of the human body after remaining in microgravity.

12 days after the ship’s landing Orionon April 10, María Guadalupe Cordero Tercero, from the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), points out that, based on the preliminary information released by NASA, the mission will allow us to delve deeper into four key aspects: human resistance in space, the validation of technology to travel to space, new data on the lunar environment – ​​including its hidden side – and the international collaboration necessary for this type of exploration.

Lack of wonder

“As we are surrounded by so much technology, we are no longer as amazed as we should be. But it is impressive to be able to take human beings from Earth, take them as far as possible and return them safely. It is impressive,” he says.

The expert in collisions between cosmic objects considers that one of the most important points after the trip is to study the living conditions of the astronauts and how they can be affected by living in a low gravity or microgravity environment, as well as by the space environment, which is aggressive.

“They want to define what the normal parameters of the human body are in space and how we can protect a person in that environment,” he highlights.

Cordero Tercero also highlights the large number of images of the far side of the Moon obtained during the mission. “On this occasion, very good resolution images were achieved that will allow us to observe more details and compare them with existing information.”

He believes that the material will be decisive for future trips because it will allow us to better understand the lunar surface and determine which sites are most suitable for landing on the moon. “About 20 years ago it was thought that volcanism on the Moon had ended more than 2.7 billion years ago. However, when analyzing finer images, areas were identified where volcanism could have existed one billion years ago.

“Every time we analyze better resolution images, we can find more details,” he emphasizes.

The student of asteroids, comets and meteoroids highlights that another relevant aspect is the international collaboration that characterizes Artemis II, from the inclusion of a Canadian astronaut in the crew to the signing of the Artemis Agreements signed by 55 countries.

Regarding why the Artemis II mission and the advances that result from it are important to understand the planet we inhabit, he concludes: “studying planetology is like when you go to the doctor and they do a complete clinical study, which includes your family history. The Earth does not live in isolation, it is part of the family of the Sun. What happens to one of the planets, or its satellites, can have an impact on the others.”