Kaitlyn's Korner: Return to the moon

By Kaitlyn Delaney
Associate Editor/Photo Editor

I have always had a love for space, planets and our wonderful moon.

When NASA announced the Atemis missions, and the goal to take man back to the moon, I was ecstatic. The thought that I would be able to see people walk on the moon in my lifetime was almost unbelievable.

With the Artemis missions, NASA plans to explore more of the surface of the moon, and use the information it learns to move toward sending astronauts to Mars. The missions will also be sending the first woman, Christina Koch, and person of color, Victor Glover, around the moon with Artemis II.

The goal this year is to send the Artemis II crew members around the moon in an orbit, to gather more information for when they actually want to land on the moon.

On Feb. 22, NASA made yet another large step toward actually being able to land on the moon.

Lunar Lander Odysseus, or Odie, successfully landed on the surface of the moon, but unfortunately broke a leg during landing and tipped sideways. Odie is currently dormant at the moment, with plans on reviving two or three weeks later.

Intuitive Machines, the company which built Odysseus, was able to successfully gather some information from the lander before putting power systems and computers on standby. Officials are hoping it can gather enough sunlight with the solar panels to reawaken, and transmit more information back to earth.

Odysseus is the first U.S. lunar lander to land on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. It has been so exciting seeing the progress made even in just the last couple of years to get us back to the moon, and beyond.

When they finally get to the point where we are actually launching to touch foot on the moon, very little will stop me from being there on launch day, camera in hand. And in the event that I can’t be there in person, I will be watching it from wherever I am, however I can.