Astronaut Jeremy Hansen fields youngsters’ queries, 100 days from Artemis 2 launch opening

LONGUEUIL — Jeremy Hansen is on the cusp of embarking on a historic deep house mission to the moon, admitting to some inquisitive college students Thursday that whereas the unknowns current a scary prospect, some dangers are value it.

Hansen was requested about his fears as he took questions from Grade 5 and 6 college students from St. Jude Elementary School on Montreal’s South Shore in regards to the Artemis 2 mission across the moon.

“What helps me with that is that I have learned to trust myself and to trust others,” Hansen, 49, of London, Ont., stated on the Canadian Space Agency headquarters in Longueuil, Que.

“And I have no guarantee of the outcome: you can die in space just like you can die here on Earth, but what I do believe is that we have been very smart about our approach.”

The Canadian and his NASA astronaut crewmates may launch their roughly 10-day sojourn across the moon and again as early as February 2026.

The first crewed mission of the Artemis program can be the primary mission to the moon by astronauts because the final Apollo mission in 1972 and can be Hansen’s first-ever mission in house.

Hansen would turn out to be the primary non-American to journey past the decrease Earth orbit.

The crew, which incorporates veteran NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, have been coaching for greater than two years and can journey aboard the Orion spacecraft they’ve named “Integrity.”

There are plans and backup plans and contingencies in place, Hansen instructed the scholars. The probably consequence can be touchdown within the Pacific Ocean on the finish.

“But we also know there’s a risk,” Hansen added. “And the factor that you need to keep in mind is that should you’re taking dangers in your life, they should be for a superb cause, and we expect this danger is for a superb cause.

“We think it’s pushing humanity forward and therefore we should take it.”

Artemis 2 mission is “very much a stepping-stone to future missions,” Hansen stated. Artemis 3 goals to land astronauts on the moon for the primary time in additional than 50 years, this time on the moon’s South Pole.

NASA additionally plans an Artemis 4 mission to start meeting of the Gateway lunar house station, a small outpost that will orbit the moon and be fitted with Canadarm 3 robotics.

Hansen emphasised that Canada earned its spot because of its ambition and imaginative and prescient. Various robotic contributions like Canadarm have opened doorways for Canadian astronauts to partake in missions.

Hansen famous the International Space Station celebrates a milestone this yr: 25 years of steady human presence aboard the orbiting station, situated about 400 kilometres above the Earth.

The moon presents one other problem in terms of resupplying. Hansen’s personal mission inside a spacecraft the scale of a camper van means provides have to suit inside its tight confines.

“If the objective is to go to the moon and stay there, establishing a permanent settlement on the moon or space stations around the moon, the distance is a thousand times farther than the International Space Station,” Hansen stated.

“If humanity aims to go to Mars, that distance is another thousand times further than the moon.”

As for the scholar’s query about foodstuff: “if we get to space and the food’s not loaded, that was a big oversight and we’re in big trouble,” Hansen joked.

Hansen was accompanied by Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, making her first go to to the company since being named to move the division.

Joly stated it’s a key second for the house company as Canada intends to extend defence spending over the following decade.

That contains coping with threats to the nation but in addition well being threats, pandemics, local weather change and disasters like wildfires, she stated.

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Oct. 16, 2025.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press