Sian Cleaver Sian, 36, is a space engineer from Chelmsford. Now she’s preparing to leave her imprint among the stars as an important member of NASA’s Artemis II mission. It’s a historic mission that launches later this week. It will be transporting four astronauts on a 10-day trip around the Moon. It will be humanity’s return to exploring the Moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
Just last week, Cleaver accepted a position with Airbus in Germany. From a hand in crafting the Orion spacecraft’s propulsion system, the key to Artemis II’s success. Her team in Bremen constructed enormous solar arrays that power the European Service Module. This spacecraft element will supply power to the astronauts while they’re en route to the Moon and beyond.
The Artemis II mission represents only the beginning of humanity’s long-term goal of establishing a human presence on Mars. About the opportunity to be involved with this kind of innovative project, Cleaver said, “I’m so thrilled.”
“I always wanted to work in the space industry and now I am doing that on a human space flight mission, which for me is a dream come true.” – Sian Cleaver
The goal of the mission is to reignite the world’s passion for exploring outer space. It’s supposed to recapture the wonderment that the Apollo missions evoked generations ago. David Morris, chief engineer for space imaging at Teledyne e2v in Chelmsford, reiterated that feeling in his remarks.
“If you look back to what happened in 1969 and the transformational aspects of seeing men on the Moon, I’d like to think that similar global excitement can happen when we see it happen again. It will invigorate the world to think more about being ‘the world’ rather than just lots of separate nations.” – David Morris
Morris creates space imaging technology that goes deep into outer space. He told me that this new lunar endeavor is key to inspiring the next generation. He acknowledged that most Americans today have never seen a moon landing.
“There are a couple of generations who haven’t lived through a moon landing, it’s almost becoming ancient history in a way,” – Sian Cleaver
As humanity prepares for Artemis II, Cleaver is hopeful, to say the least. He thinks that makes this mission uniquely poised to spark a new era of space enthusiasm.
“To experience that with a whole new load of people on this Earth I think is going to be really special. It’s also just the first step on our journey to Mars.” – Sian Cleaver