Nasa has announced it will conduct two multi-week field tests near Flagstaff, Arizona, in the US with astronauts, engineers and scientists to practice mission scenarios for the Artemis lunar missions.
The Arizona desert possesses many characteristics that resemble a lunar environment, including challenging terrain, interesting geology and minimal communications infrastructure.
The first spacecraft in Nasa's Artemis lunar mission was scheduled to launch in August 2022. However, following the failure of two launch attempts, the take-off date has been pushed back to November 2022. The flight, which will carry mannequins rather than astronauts, would mark the next chapter in putting humans back on the Moon.
Before the Artemis-1 launch, Nasa has two test missions scheduled to take place later this month in the Arizona desert: the 'Joint Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program Test Team Field Test #3' (JETT3) and 'Desert Research and...