Artemis II: Arizona aerospace companies help power NASA mission

PHOENIX - On April 1, NASA will send four astronauts around the dark side of the moon and back to Earth for the first time since the 1970s.

The mission is a test run before humanity returns to the surface of the moon in 2028, and none of it happens without a group of people who have ties to Arizona.

Repeating History:

It's not the first time Arizona has played a role in lunar travel. In fact, it was researchers at the University of Arizona that mapped the lunar surface for the Apollo missions.

Now, Arizona is back at it again as the launch countdown begins.

Big picture view:

It began with years of planning and development: a video taken inside Honeywell's Glendale facility in 2020 shows engineers crafting the tools to return astronauts to the moon.

"All the development for almost every piece of hardware to be delivered started in Glendale," said Kendall Bjorge, senior director of program management at Honeywell.

Bjorge is in Florida, gearing up for the anticipated launch of Artemis II.

"Super excited to get this rocket up and going," Bjorge said.

Bjorge mentioned specifically something developed and built in Glendale for this mission.

"Imagine the shaking and rumbling of the rocket, and you have astronauts in the capsule, and they're looking at display units we produce, Honeywell produces," Bjorge said. "So we have dampers that manage the vibrations, so the astronauts can see the display units during launch."

Dig deeper:

It's not just Honeywell. Northrop Grumman chose its Gilbert location to receive the HALO capsule in 2025. Future Artemis missions will bring it to the moon as a place for astronauts to live.

Also, once NASA picks a lunar rover, ASU will have equipment on it capturing spectral data to identify, quantify and map minerals and volatiles.

"We've been working on our instrument development for the better part of a decade," said Angela Marusiak from the University of Arizona.

At the University of Arizona, they're watching the launch with eyes towards 2028, when Artemis IV will return astronauts to the surface. U of A has a contract for astronauts to install their seismometer to detect earthquakes — or rather, moonquakes.

"With our seismometer we're hoping we can record impacts on the moon, record different types of moonquakes that could potentially pose a hazard if we want to establish a permanent moon base," Marusiak said. "Then we can learn about the inside of the moon, how big is the core, why doesn't it have a magnetic field anymore, how thick is the crust."

In the last few weeks, NASA moved up its timeline for future Artemis missions, averaging one mission about every 10 months. Bjorge at Honeywell says the Glendale facility will continue to play a key role in the development of components for those future launches as well.