Boston (USA): Artemis I will send an unmanned rocket to orbit the Moon for a month. The program aims to increase the participation of women in space exploration – 30% of its engineers are women. In addition, the Artemis I mission will carry two mannequins designed to study the effects of radiation on women’s bodies so that NASA can learn how to better protect female astronauts. Currently, female astronauts are less likely than men to be selected for missions because their bodies do not meet NASA’s maximum radiation exposure limits. NASA expects to send the first woman and black man to the Moon on Artemis III sometime after 2024.
As a scholar of Greek mythology, I find the mission’s name quite suggestive: the Greeks and Romans associated Artemis with the moon, and she has become a modern feminist symbol as well. Artemis was a major goddess in ancient Greece, worshiped at least in the first millennium BC or even earlier. She was the daughter of the main Olympian god Zeus, who ruled the world from the summit of Mount Olympus. She was also the twin sister of Apollo, the god of the sun and oracle.
NASA will try to launch ‘Moon Rocket’ on Saturday, preparing to send humans again to the moon
Artemis was a virgin goddess of the forest and hunting. Her independence and strength have long inspired women in a wide range of activities. For example, in a poem titled “Artemis”, author Alison Eir Jenks emphasized the independence and autonomy of women, writing: “I am now your godmother… your cook, your bus-stop, As your doctor, your goddess of animals and the forest, Artemis has also inspired environmental conservation programs, in which the goddess is seen as an example of a woman exercising her power by caring for the planet.
Greek Artemis was strong and courageous
However, while the Greek Artemis was strong and courageous, she was not always kind and caring, even to women. However, this aspect of the goddess faded with time. With the rise of feminism, Artemis became a symbol of feminine power and self-reliance. NASA has a long history of naming its missions after mythological characters. In the early 1950s, many rockets and launch systems were named after Greek sky gods, such as Atlas and Saturn, whose Greek name is Kronos.
Although the Titans were known for their immense strength
Atlas and Saturn weren’t just gods, they were titans. In Greek mythology, the Titans represent the unstoppable, primordial forces of nature, and so they invoke the extraordinary vastness of space exploration. Although the Titans were known for their immense power, they were also rebellious and dangerous and were eventually defeated by the Olympians, who represented civilization in Greek mythology. After the advent of human spaceflight, NASA began naming the mission after the children of Zeus who are associated with the sky. The Mercury program, active from 1958 to 1963, was named after the Roman equivalent of Hermes, the angel god, who flies between Olympus, Earth, and Hades with his winged sandals.
It was named after the twin sons of Zeus, Castor and Pollux.
Beginning in 1963, the three-year Gemini program featured a capsule designed for two astronauts and named after the twin islands of Zeus – Castor and Pollux, known in Greek as Dioscuri. Is. Hai – who was cast as Gemini in the stars. In Greek and Roman art he was always depicted with a star on his head. The Space Shuttle program, which ran from 1981 to 2011, moved away from mythical nicknames, and the names Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavor were meant to create a sense of innovation.
This would usher in a more diverse era of human spaceflight.
With Artemis, NASA is returning to the Apollo program, which ran from 1963 to 1972 and sent a man to the Moon in 1969. More than 50 years later, Artemis will continue the tradition where her twin brother ushered in a more diverse era of human spaceflight.
Read breaking news first in Hindi News18 Hindi | Read today’s latest news, live news updates, most trusted Hindi news website News18 Hindi |
Tags: moon, NASA, rocket
First Published: 31 August 2022, 16:31 IST
