MOONDAY

 Shine on, shine on harvest moon, up in the sky.  

Artemis is NASA's program for sending a man to the moon and maybe setting up a base there.  The long range project would allow a space station to orbit the moon from which other space craft could be propelled further into space.

NASA is working with the Japanese, Canadian, and European space agencies.  All four are involved in some way.  The program started in 2005 expecting to launch it's first step in 2016.  The program was envisioned during the Bush administration, then stopped by the Obama administration and finally restarted by the Trump administration.  

Well, Artemis 1 finally launched last month.  It sent an unmanned space ship to the moon; into orbit around the moon and then back home.  A baby step.  In two years, 2024, they have scheduled the same project with astronauts aboard.  Then, in 2025, another launch in which the astronauts will descend to the moon from lunar orbit.  

The Artemis 1 space craft recently sent and which will carry the first astronauts is called Orion.  Right now it is exiting lunar orbit and will head to Earth today.  

The name Artemis was chosen because that was the name of the twin sister of Apollo, daughter of Zeus  and the goddess of the hunt in Greek mythology who lived on the moon. Of course, Orion is also a figure of Greek mythology known as the Hunter.     

Not that anyone worries about money any more, but we are spending a bout $2 billion per launch.  The budget from 2020 to 2024 is $35 billion.  Don't worry, these things never stay within budget.