There is still a chance that NASA’s historic Artemis I mission, which is intended to start the next phase of returning to the Moon, will launch this week. Snoopy, Shaun the Sheep, and some manikins with very NSFW looks are among the excited passengers despite the fact that the mission is unmanned.
Artemis I, among other things, is a crucial test mission to guarantee the safety of astronauts on subsequent missions by determining, for example, whether the Orion spacecraft can withstand the temperatures of reentry through Earth’s atmosphere, which is not something you want to try out with people on board.
Artemis will also be carrying souvenirs, commemorative artifacts, and gifts of gratitude to all those who have made this trip possible, totaling about 10,000 items, as is a long-standing custom for NASA missions, beginning with Apollo.
A small sample of Moondust and a piece of the rocket that allowed for its collection more than 50 years ago are both onboard, according to NASA, and both are on loan from the Smithsonian. Apollo 11 was the first mission to land humans on the Moon. Perhaps one day a piece of Artemis will go to Mars, much as Neil Armstong brought a piece of the Wright Brothers’ Wright Flyer with him in 1969.
Shaun the Sheep, two female LEGO astronauts, and Snoopy represent the educational outreach initiatives of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), while Snoopy serves as the mission’s crucial gravity gauge. Even 90 Girl Scout space science badges will be given to the victors of an essay contest titled “To the Moon and Back.”
Most of the goods, which range from pencils to lapel pins and include 2,790 mission patches for the thousands who helped make this trip possible, are presents and souvenirs that will be presented to participants in the space program upon their return to Earth.
Additionally, there are USB drives and microchips that have been collected by NASA, ESA, the Italian and German space organizations that include poems, paintings, videos, and other works of the public. ESA is bringing a 3D-printed figure of the Greek goddess Artemis, while the Israeli Space Agency is sending a dead sea pebble and tree seeds.
However, the manikins who appear to be wearing blue bondage attire are our favorites. Meet Helga and Zohar, two “female” manikin torsos constructed from components that resemble the bones, tissue, and organs of adult females. They are the first two female radiation “phantoms” (as NASA refers to them) to be launched into space and are a component of the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE). The person with the radiation safety vest is Zohar.
