Maggie Aderin-Pocock

Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm space scientist Maggie Adarin, and this is 13 Minutes Presents Artemis II, The Learnings. I'm astronaut Tim Peake. Before launch and during the 10-day mission, we brought you daily updates on Artemis II's journey to the moon and back. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

I can't wait to hear his answer. And something I thought was really amazing about that press conference is there were quite a few things throughout the mission that were scripted. And you knew that that's fine because it's a big moment for NASA. So the words that were spoken before launch, the words that were spoken at various points in the mission. But during that press conference,

Se, mitä tuli ylös, oli hyvin ihmisen vastaus. He yrittivät yhä prosessia, mitä he olivat olleet käyneet, mitä he olivat nähneet. Se oli todennäköisesti hyvin iloinen kokemus heistä. Se oli todella yllättävää nähdä se iloinen iloinen kokemus, jota he olivat esittäneet vastauksissaan.

But I think that's what made the whole mission so successful. As you say, there's a scripted base, but you could see them as humans, humans on an amazing adventure. And it enabled us emotionally to go with them. You know, I was talking to my dad, Dr. Bill Fisher, who flew on the space shuttle STS-51I.

The fact that everything went as smoothly as it did, I think, was a pleasant surprise to everybody in mission control and the astronauts up in space. But I suppose this was the point of Artemis 2. Artemis 1 was uncrewed. Artemis 2, we have humans now. And that human element always throws up interesting things. But as you say, it went beautifully. So now, yeah, roll on Artemis 3 and 4.

Kyllä, ja minun pitäisi kertoa myös Euroopan koulutusmoduuliin. Yksi näkökulmasta oli transluoniointi, joka oli ihan huono, ja me olimme odottamassa näitä orbital correction burns, jotka eivät koskaan tapahtunut, koska navigaation järjestelmä oli niin hyvä. Eli on mahtavaa nähdä, että missio toimii hyvin myös.

Artemis 3 ja Artemis 4 ovat tapahtuneet melko nopeasti, eikö?

Yeah, and it's great to have that redundancy as well. The more data they get and the more kind of re-entry profiles that they try as well will allow them to gather this information that on future missions they can adjust that re-entry profile as they see fit. And that's going to give them scope to deal with other problems as they may emerge throughout future Artemis missions. So this is really great data to be getting this early on.

I always thought the timescale was a little optimistic. So the fact they're putting in a bit of slippage now sort of makes sense, giving them a bit of breathing space. Because turning that around that fast just seems, yeah, it seems optimistic. Maggie, there's no way NASA or any space company would put forth a timeline that's too optimistic. It's never happened before.

I think there's a great point there, Kristin. Now that we have had such a successful Artemis 2 mission and that NASA have this momentum and positivity, it's probably a good time to summarize what NASA's published plans are for the next two Artemis missions.

When Artemis III was first announced, it was billed as the return to the lunar surface, first human landing since Apollo. But space exploration rarely follows the straight line as we've just been discussing. A few months ago, in early 2026, NASA announced major changes.

Instead of heading straight for the moon, Artemis 3 will now stay much closer to home. It's become a mission that's going to stay in low Earth orbit, designed to test the rest of the systems that will eventually take astronauts to the lunar south pole. So in that sense, you can consider Artemis 3 as perhaps equivalent to Apollo 9. It's a dress rehearsal, and it's a chance to test the human landing system. As Kristen, as you said, that could be either SpaceX's starship,

Or it could be Blue Origins Blue Moon, but in Earth orbit, where help is only hours away, not days away. So the HLS is going to launch independently of Orion. Orion will still launch on the Space Launch System, but then the two will rendezvous in low Earth orbit.

Because before you can trust a spacecraft to take humans to the moon, you need to test it locally. And that for us is low Earth orbit, where the risks are manageable, because it all needs to work flawlessly. Because it's all about transferring the crew to the lunar lander. So first of all, they need to dock with this. Then they need to check that their life support systems are compatible. And then, of course, you need to transfer the crew who will navigate to the moon's surface.

And as you can gather, there's a lot changing all the time. And so we have to caveat what we're saying. It could change very quickly. But another advantage of this low Earth orbit docking, rather than doing the docking a quarter of a million miles away to the moon, is that NASA could save one of their upper stages for a future use. So this interim cryogenic propulsion stage, the ICPS, that you need if you're going to go

ettei se tarvitse, jos menet ala-alueelle. Heillä on vain yksi, NASA on vain yksi ICPS. He voisivat saavuttaa sen ja käyttää sen Artemis 4, ja laittaa sen paikalle Artemis 3. Tai jos he käyttävät ICPS Artemis 3, he tarvitsevat uuden ympäristön, Centaur 5, Artemis 4-missiin.

Eli Centaur 5 ei ole vielä valmis, ja niin paljon muutoksia on tapahtunut, että se voi olla, että he vain käyttävät vahvan Artemis 3 ja saavat viimeisen ICPS Artemis 4.

Ja sitten astronautti liittyy sieltä, kuten he olisivat tehneet Artemis 3in käytössä alueellisessa ympäristössä. Ja sieltä heidät saa mennä Suomen pohjoispaikalle. Ja on totta sanoa, että Suomen pohjoispaikalla on alue, joka ei ole kuitenkaan kuten Apollo-astronautit koskaan katsottu. He aloittivat ympäristön pohjoispaikalla.

Maggie, sinä olet todennäköisesti voinut kertoa meille enemmän tästä, mutta Pohjois-Pohjoinen on melko yllättävää. Se on saanut joitain suurimpia järjestöjä solasysteemiin. Osat niistä ovat järjestöjä, jotka ovat järjestöjä, jotka ovat järjestöjä.

It's hoped that in those cold, dark regions at the south pole of the moon, that's where the frozen water ice may lie in the darkness. I love that, lurking in the darkness. Because they are permanently shadowed, asteroids might have deposited water on the moon in the past, but they won't evaporate because they're sheltered in 24-7 constant darkness.