Artemis and Apollo with Poppy Northcutt — The Cosmic Companion 8 March 2022

We talk with Poppy Northcutt about her role on Apollo and the upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon

This week on the Cosmic Companion, we discuss the return of humans to the Moon with NASA’s Artemis program and compare today’s endeavors to the Apollo program of the 1960s and early 70s.

Later on, we will be joined by Apollo mathematician Poppy Northcutt. She was the first woman to work at NASA mission control and was instrumental to the success of Apollo 8 and the safe return of Apollo 13.

Artemis 1

The first flight in the Artemis program, (not surprisingly) named Artemis 1, will be the sole uncrewed flight in the Artemis program. Although later missions will bring human travelers back to the Moon, this first flight is fully automated. The spacecraft will soar beyond the orbit of the Moon, before returning back to Earth. This flight path brings the Orion spacecraft on a similar trajectory to that followed by…