Nasa astronauts train for 2024 return to the Moon inside giant water tank to simulate low gravity
NASA is using a huge water tank to help its astronauts prepare to return to the Moon in 2024.
The aquatic setting helps the astronauts recreate what it will be like living and working in low gravity settings.
The space agency said in : "Nasa astronauts wear weighted vests and backpacks to simulate walking on the Moon, which has one-sixth the gravity of Earth."
It also released a recent image from the Neutral Buoyancy Lab located at the Johnson Space Center in Houston to demonstrate how astronauts use the facility.
Astronauts Drew Feustel and Don Pettit are among those currently training in the underwater lab.
The facility is usually used to train astronauts for spacewalks outside of the International Space Station.
Nasa explained: "The teams are moving around, setting up habitats, collecting samples and deploying experiments as they will on the Moon."
The US space agency is aiming to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2024 as part of its Artemis program.
Artemis should result in the establishment of a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface.
The mission also aims to put the first woman on the Moon.
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin has predicted that the Artemis program will bring decades of progress to space travel.
He recently told : "The five decades of Apollo['s legacy] goes all the way from Apollo 1 through the successful landing, on up through Apollo 17 ... and now we're going to begin the decades of Artemis."
The Moon – our closest neighbour explained
Here's what you need to know...
- The Moon is a natural satellite – a space-faring body that orbits a planet
- It's Earth's only natural satellite, and is the fifth biggest in the Solar System
- The Moon measures 2,158 miles across, roughly 0.27 times the diameter of Earth
- Temperatures on the Moon range from minus 173 degrees Celcius to 260 degrees Celcius
- Experts assumed the Moon was another planet, until Nicolaus Copernicus outlined his theory about our Solar System in 1543
- It was eventually assigned to a "class" after Galileo discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610
- The Moon is believed to have formed around 4.51billion years ago
- The strength of its gravitational field is about a sixth of Earth's gravity
- Earth and the Moon have "synchronous rotation", which means we always see the same side of the Moon – hence the phrase "dark side of the Moon"
- The Moon's surface is actually dark, but appears bright in the sky due to its reflective ground
- During a solar eclipse, the Moon covers the Sun almost completely. Both objects appear a similar size in the sky because the Sun is both 400 times larger and farther
- The first spacecraft to reach the Moon was in 1959, as part of the Soviet Union's Lunar program
- The first manned orbital mission was Nasa's Apollo 8 in 1968
- And the first manned lunar landing was in 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission
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