00:00Saturday July 20th is Space Exploration Day. It marks 55 years since Apollo 11
00:07when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to step
00:12foot on the surface of the moon. And joining us from NASA is Mike Serafin. He
00:17is the mission manager for NASA's Artemis 3 program. Thank you so much for
00:22joining us Mike. And you said you're a big fan of the show so we also appreciate
00:25that. Yeah, thank you for having me Ari. I appreciate the just all the
00:31information that you guys provide and it's great to be here with you. Well now
00:35hopefully you can provide us some information because July 20th 1969. Can
00:40you put into perspective the importance of Apollo 11's mission and the
00:44accomplishments? Yeah, Apollo 11 was arguably one of the greatest achievements
00:49in all of humankind where Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon for the
00:55very first time. And we accomplished the goal, the national goal of putting a man
01:01on the moon by the end of the decade. And it inspired an entire generation of
01:06young men, young women to enter the field of science, technology, engineering, and
01:12math. And it was a boost to our nation's posture all across the globe. And it is
01:20an achievement that is going to be hard to beat. As mission manager, you are
01:26leading NASA's Artemis 3, scheduled to return to the moon in 2026. What is your
01:31mission? Yes, we will return to the to the moon, this time going to the region of
01:39the South Pole. And we'll bring the first woman and eventually we'll bring our
01:46international partners and people of color to the surface of the moon. We're
01:50going back this time to stay. We're going back with international partners. We're
01:55going with our industry partners. We're going for science, for inspiration, and
02:02for national posture. And having a coalition of like-minded partners,
02:08whether they're here in the U.S. or our international partners, is going to set
02:13behaviors for human exploration for decades to come. I love that. All right,
02:19looking ahead, what are the team goals for Artemis 3? And how will it help
02:25further space exploration to Mars?
02:30So fundamentally, we're going to take four astronauts out to the moon, two of
02:35them will stay in lunar orbit, two will get into a lander and go down to the
02:39surface of the moon, explore for the better part of a week to help us
02:44understand the history of the moon. The moon doesn't have erosion like we have
02:49here on Earth, and it's our closest neighbor. So by studying the moon, we can
02:53learn more about the history of the earth and changes over time that have
02:58happened that haven't been worn away by wind and rain and water. We will also
03:05grow technologies and again inspire the Artemis generation of young men, young
03:13women, to seek careers in science, technology, engineering, and math, and go
03:19with our partners. And partnering with friendly nations and drawing them
03:25into a peaceful endeavor is all going to encapsulate our goals, and we will go
03:32with them even further eventually on the Mars when we're ready.
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