Which four astronauts will have a close encounter with the moon on Artemis II?

In just a few short days, something incredible is set to happen in the world of space exploration. Four brave individuals will embark on a 10-day journey to the moon and back, marking the first time in 53 years that humans will have set foot on its dusty surface. It's a monumental occasion, especially considering that since the 1960s and '70s, when NASA successfully landed 12 people on the moon, we have only ventured about 870 miles away from Earth.

In just a matter of days, these four individuals will be 250,000 miles away from home. This historic mission, known as Artemis II, is the second phase of NASA's return-to-the-moon plan, with the launch scheduled for this evening or the early hours of tomorrow UK time. During their 10-day journey, the crew will be a mere speck in the sky to us Earthlings as they orbit the moon inside the deep-space capsule, Orion.

They will even get the chance to see the far side of the moon, often referred to as the dark side, as it is the half of our cosmic neighbor that we never get to see. So, who are the lucky four individuals chosen for this once-in-a-lifetime experience? First up is Commander Reid Wiseman, a decorated veteran Navy aviator and single father of two from Baltimore.

Sadly, Wiseman lost his wife, Carroll Taylor Wiseman, to cancer in 2020. He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009 and has already been to space once before as a flight engineer on the International Space Station in 2014. According to his NASA biography, he completed two spacewalks and helped set a station record by completing 82 hours of research in just one week.

Wiseman has a deep fascination with the moon and plans to take a notebook with him to jot down his thoughts during the journey. In an interview with Space.com last year, he expressed his thoughts on the moon, saying, "When I stand on the surface of Earth now, and I look at the moon at night - and I might see a waxing gibbous, but I know now on the far side that's a waning crescent - I'm flipping my brain around to all of those things, and just understanding that. Like, I've never spent time in my entire life thinking about that.

But now it's all I think about." Next is Victor Glover, a former Navy aviator and first Black man to travel around the moon. Originally from Pomona, California, Glover will serve as the pilot of the Orion capsule. He has been behind the wheel of a spacecraft before, having flown to the ISS for the SpaceX Crew-1 mission in 2020.

Glover has several master's degrees and plans to take a Bible and some family heirlooms with him on the journey. He stated over the weekend that while he hopes his trip will inspire young Black children to become astronauts, he also hopes that "one day we don't have to talk about these firsts." Christina Koch, the mission specialist for Artemis II, will be the first woman to head to the moon. Originally from Jacksonville, North Carolina, Koch was chosen to be an astronaut alongside Glover.

She has wanted to be an astronaut since she was 12 years old and has already made history by participating in the first all-woman spacewalk in 2019. Additionally, Koch has spent more time in space than most of her peers, spending almost an entire year in the cosmos and completing 42 hours and 15 minutes of spacewalks. Before becoming an astronaut, she worked as an electrical engineer at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

In an interview with The New York Times, Koch stated, "For me, all these firsts are really not about one individual's accomplishments but celebrating where we are at." And finally, we have Jeremy Hansen, the Canadian Space Agency astronaut and the tallest member of the team at a towering 6'2". Hailing from a farm on the outskirts of London, Ontario, Hansen will serve as the other mission specialist for Artemis II. He first began his journey to becoming an astronaut at the young age of 12 when he joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadets.

In 2009, he was chosen by the CSA to be an astronaut. Hansen plans to bring four moon pendants that he gave to his wife and children with him on the journey. He expressed his excitement for what they will see during the mission, saying, "We're going to have extraordinary things that we will see.

[Seeing] Earth from the moon: It's something amazing."