00:00Anticipation is building on the space coast as we are just days away from humanity returning
00:05to the lunar frontier for the first time in more than a half century.
00:11People are really excited about this.
00:12Four astronauts have spent years training for this historic moment.
00:16And joining us to break it all down is science communications specialist Alexandra Doughton.
00:21Thanks so much for being with us.
00:22You, of course, are known as Astro Alexandra for good reason.
00:26So, you know, with all the excitement around this, this has been my biggest question.
00:30Of course, this is like a new age of space exploration, but the astronauts have been preparing for this.
00:37Can you tell us about how they've been preparing?
00:40Absolutely.
00:40So these are experienced astronauts and a lot of...
00:44I agree.
00:45No, you're right.
00:46But things like that that you wouldn't really think of can get tricky.
00:52Exactly.
00:53All right, well, let's talk a little bit more about Orion, the capsule.
00:56You know, it is designed to protect, of course, the astronauts.
00:59But what about from the sun's radiation?
01:02And what they're going to do is they're going to move some of the stowage bags into those areas to
01:06make it more dense.
01:08Wow.
01:08To be like a storm shelter.
01:09And they're going to build it within the capsule.
01:11But hopefully that won't happen.
01:13But they have prepared...
01:14Now, if radiation and building yourself into a little radiation shelter wasn't, like, enough to make you think,
01:19oh, this is kind of scary, what are some of the other, you know, hazards and things they have to
01:23think about,
01:24the space-related concerns on this mission?
01:26Of course.
01:26One of the specialists, Christina Koch, she said that Artemis 2 mission is at its heart a test mission,
01:35just like you said, for the Orion space capsule.
01:39So infrastructure is going to create a moon base, a sustained lunar presence for humans on the moon.
01:46Astra Alexandra, you answered all of our questions that we had, and we just keep getting more excited.
01:51All right.
