Un professeur d’université canadien rejoint l’équipe de la NASA pour la mission lunaire Artemis III

Gordon Osinski has spent the past twenty years examining meteorite craters in detail.

Studying planetary geology has led this Ontario university professor to travel the world. His expertise has also led him to become part of the NASA team that will develop the scientific program to study the lunar surface as humans walk on it for the first time in over 50 years.

Professor Osinski is the only Canadian to be part of the “geology team” recently announced by NASA for the Artemis III mission – the one that plans to land and walk on the Moon. The experts will plan the scientific tasks that will be carried out by the astronauts, who are expected to land near the south pole of the Moon by December 2025.

“To be honest, it still seems quite surreal,” said Mr. Osinski, a professor of Earth Sciences at Western University, in a telephone interview. “It’s still percolating in my mind.”

NASA plans several Artemis missions, which will bring humans back to the Moon and further explore the lunar surface with the aim of using these results for a possible mission to Mars.

The Artemis II mission – which includes Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen – will send a crew of four into space starting in November of next year for a flyby of the far side of the Moon. It will be the first time a human being ventures so far from Earth.

Understanding planetary processes

The Artemis III mission will be the first crewed mission to land on the lunar south pole – and the first landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The team of geologists, including Professor Osinski, will plan the scientific tasks of the astronauts during their walks on the Moon. The astronauts will collect lunar samples, images, and scientific measurements. The samples and data collected will help deepen the understanding of fundamental planetary processes, NASA said.

“Artemis III will land in the region of the south pole, where there are many craters,” emphasized the Ontario professor. NASA has not yet announced the exact landing site, so at that time, we will do a lot of work with all the available satellite images to develop a plan for the sites the astronauts will visit, hopefully.”

Mr. Osinski is also the principal investigator for Canada’s first lunar rover mission, the Canadian-made rover that is expected to traverse the south pole surface by 2026.

Mr. Osinski, 47, grew up in the UK and moved to Canada in 1999. He began teaching at Western University in London in 2007. Although he has always had a general interest in science, his deep interest in space is what he calls a “late vocation.”

It was only after moving to Canada and working with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency that he developed a true fascination for space exploration, he says. “Since then, it has simply expanded and snowballed.”

“There are currently more Canadian scientists, engineers, and other professionals involved in various missions, not only with NASA, but with various space agencies around the world, and in more Canadian space missions than ever before,” says the geologist.

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