Fifty years have passed since the last astronauts walked on the moon. With the November 16, 2022, launch of Artemis I, NASA is finally preparing to send people back. This generation of spacefarers will face new challenges. NASA expects them to stay on the moon longer and learn how to live there. Their work will pave the way to send the first people to Mars.
NASA’s Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s sent 24 white men to the moon. Today’s mission goals will require 21st century astronauts to bring different knowledge, skills and temperaments than Apollo crews did. Fortunately, NASA is now picking from a much wider array of candidates.
Thanks to social, political and scientific changes over the last half century, the sex, race and fields of expertise of today’s astronauts are more diverse. NASA has declared that upcoming moon missions will include the first woman and the first person of color. Some groups are even thinking about how to include people with disabilities in spacefaring.
This progress doesn’t just broaden the pool of talent available for creating a more permanent human presence in space. Future lunar crews also may reflect our lives on Earth more faithfully, making space for everyone.
Meet the modern astronauts
NASA has not yet selected the next visitors to the moon. But there are only about 50 people to choose from. That includes 43 active astronauts and 10 candidates still in training. The members of that cohort come from a variety of backgrounds. The list includes medical doctors and military pilots. It also includes geologists, microbiologists, engineers and others. Of NASA’s active astronauts, roughly one-third (37 percent) are women.
“The astronaut corps is, of…
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