SHOOT FOR THE MOON... AND MARS!

As Nasa prepares to blast four astronauts into orbit for its first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years, how the history-making voyage could secure humankind's future on the Red Planet

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Artemis II astronauts, clockwise from left, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen and Reid Wiseman

WARNING lights flashed: a life-threatening emergency. Air was leaking from the crew’s module, and the spaceship’s life-support system was failing. Calmly and methodically, the four astronauts addressed the crisis. It was the Artemis II crew’s first time together in their command module, and Nasa’s Mission Control threw life-or-death challenges at them in the training session at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida last July.

Towering over launch pad 39B, the Artemis II spaceship today sits ready to blast off as early as next month on the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Soaring 322ft above the pad, weighing 2,585 metric tonnes, crammed with more than 45 miles of cables and wiring, it will be the largest, heaviest and most powerful rocket ever to leave Earth’s orbit.

Though Artemis II will not be landing on the lunar surface — Nasa aims to put boots on the ground by 2030, though China is vying to get there first — it will fly 6,400 miles behind the dark side of the Moon: the furthest humans have ever travelled into deep space.

Yet the Moon is only a stepping stone, a small detour before making the giant leap for mankind into interplanetary exploration with a mission to Mars.

President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order last month calling for a return to the Moon “to assert American leadership in space, lay the foundations for lunar economic development, prepare for the journey to Mars, and inspire the next generation of American explorers”.

Renowned British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in a 2008 Nasa lecture urged crewed missions to Mars, saying: “It will completely change the future of the human race and maybe determine whether we have any future at all.”