One Of These 9 Astronauts Will Be The First Woman On The Moon

Right now, the Orion spacecraft is over 200,000 miles away as it orbits the moon. Orion is currently unmanned and, at its furthest point, this vacant vessel reached a distance of 268,563 miles away — that's the furthest that a spacecraft intended to carry a crew has ever reached in the history of extraterrestrial travel.

Orion isn't expected back on solid ground for another couple of weeks as part of the Artemis I mission, but once it is, another very important chapter will begin. NASA's longterm mission is to explore the moon and Mars, and Orion's debut voyage was just the first phase. The next, Artemis II, will put astronauts on the moon's surface in 2024. This crew will look quite different from Buzz Aldrin (still living and now 92 years old), Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins, the first astronauts to ever leave bootprints in lunar soil. This crew will include the first woman to touch down on the planetary body — and if we look at the incredible team of women on the Artemis crew, it looks like the moon will be in very capable hands. Which one of these nine astronauts will be the one to make history?

Hailing from Richland, Washington, Kayla Barron has been an astronaut with NASA since 2017 and a nuclear engineer for longer than that (via NASA). Before joining NASA, she served as an officer in the U.S. Navy for seven years on the USS Maine, a missile submarine based in Washington, as a submarine warfare officer — she was also part of the first commissioned class of women for the submarine community. After two years of astronaut candidate training, Barron first flew on NASA's SpaceX Crew-3, which ventured to the International Space Station last fall and returned this May.

Barron, who first graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a bachelor's in Systems Engineering, attended graduate school while serving in the military. During her studies, Barron researched the future of the fuel cycle — more specifically, nuclear reactors. Barron graduated from the University of Cambridge with her Masters in Nuclear Engineering. Barron has won the Navy Commendation Medal and Corps Achievement Medal. She is also a Distinguished Graduate and Trident Scholar at the U.S. Naval Academy, and a Gates Cambridge Scholar.

Christina Koch is a Grand Rapids, Michigan, native that will notch her 10-year anniversary of being an astronaut with NASA next year — but before even becoming space-trained, she was an engineer, an Antarctic researcher, a firefighter, and a search and rescuer (via NASA). As a flight engineer, Koch served on three International Space Station expeditions, and among her incredibly extensive list of accomplishments, Koch holds the record for the longest single space voyage by a woman — 328 consecutive days in space. 

Her NASA profile notes that Koch first worked for the agency at the Goddard Space Flight Center Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, where she used her engineering expertise to develop scientific equipment for use in space. Before her astronaut days, Koch worked in remote field research in Antarctica at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where she was also a member of the search and rescue and firefighting teams. Koch has worked on space instrument development at Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory, researched at Summit Station in Greenland, and was a field engineer in Utquiagvik, Alaska with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (via United States Antarctic Program). Somehow, Koch found the time to tutor on a volunteer basis and be involved in educational outreach.

From aquanaut to astronaut, Jessica Meir, Ph.D. is a 1999 graduate of Brown University, where she began her studies in biology (via NASA). This was followed up with a Master of Science in space studies from the International Space University, and a doctorate in marine biology from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The flight of geese, the diving of emperor penguins — these are examples of animal physiology at work in extreme environmental conditions that Meir studied, which prepared her to study the impacts of reduced gravity and space travel on human physiology.

Meir was under the sea before she was above the sky. She joined the crew of NASA's underwater laboratory, Aquarius, for a mission that studies extreme environments, until she was selected for astronaut training in 2013. In the years that followed, her accomplishments were numerous: She was the lead capsule communicator for an International Space Station expedition, was mission control to two ISS spacewalks, and currently is SpaceX Commercial Crew's Assistant to the Chief Astronaut. 

Meir joined fellow astronaut Christina Koch in the first all-woman spacewalk, worked on hundreds of biological and physiological space experiments, and has circumvented the Earth nearly 3,300 times for a total of 86.9 million miles traveled in space. She is a first-generation American, a "Time" magazine 100 Most Influential People of 2020 recipient, and a member of the Maine Women's Hall of Fame (via News Center Maine).

Astronaut, aeronautical engineer, and decorated military pilot Anne McClain has spent more than 2,000 hours in the air — and that's not even including her time as a flight engineer aboard two International Space Station expeditions (via NASA). She's led two spacewalks and spent over 200 days in space. Before that, she was an attack helicopter pilot and led an air platoon in the 6th Cavalry Regiment at the Wheeler Army Airfield in Hawaii. McClain dedicated 15 months to Operation Iraqi Freedom, a total of 800 hours in combat across 216 missions. She's soared high in the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, the UH-60 Blackhawk, the UH-72 Lakota — but not so high as she did after being selected for astronaut training in 2013, according to Space Center Houston.

Senior Army Aviator and Lieutenant Colonel McClain obtained her bachelor of science in mechanical/aeronautical engineering from West Point, going on to earn two master's degrees, one in aerospace engineering from England's University of Bath and one in international relations from the University of Bristol. She is crested with multiple military service awards — the Distinguished Service Medal, a Bronze Star, two Air Medals, and one Air Medal with Valor — as well as the NASA Spaceflight Medal.

A star-reaching dynamo from Petaluma, California, Nicole Mann brings expertise in mechanical engineering and fluid mechanics to the Artemis team (via NASA). She was one of eight astronaut trainees recruited by NASA in 2013 — along with a couple of her Artemis crew mates. Mann was at the helm of the Orion development team and its adjacent launch and ground systems. Mann hasn't yet had her first space flight but is training to be among the first crew of the Being Starliner spacecraft.

Before joining NASA, Mann was a naval aviator, once flying Thunderbolts out of South Carolina and later serving in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, flying off from the USS Enterprise. Mann has logged over 2,500 hours in the sky, notched 47 missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and is accoladed with two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals and two Air Medals, and is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.

Jasmin Moghbeli is one of the newer recruits on the women of Artemis lineup, having joined the agency in 2017 and completing her astronaut training in 2019 (via NASA). This Baldwin, New York, native comes with an aerospace engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plus a master's in the same from the Naval Postgraduate School. Like many of her aforementioned crew mates, Moghbeli brings an extensive history in the aviation territory of military service. She joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 2005 as a Second Lieutenant, and after flight school earned the title of Naval Aviator in 2008. For the next couple of years, she flew attack helicopters out of the Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton in California — including several missions to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

Moghbeli served three total rounds of deployment and dove deeper into flight training after returning to American soil, where her knowledge in many subjects related to aeronautics deepened. Moghbeli assisted in over 150 active duty missions, spanning 2,000 hours of flight and 25 different vessels, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. This astronaut, Marine, and attack helicopter pilot is still awaiting her first space assignment.

Kate Rubins, a NASA astronaut since 2009, is also a biologist who specializes in molecular biology, cancer research, and immunology (via NASA). After earning a doctorate from Stanford, Rubins developed the world's first smallpox infection model at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute. While leading a team of researchers during her MIT Central and West African viral disease investigation fellowship, Rubins conducted field studies in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

In 2009 Rubins was selected for astronaut training (via NASA). She has ventured to the International Space Station twice, studying human physiology and cellular biology while in space. She was the first scientist to sequence DNA while in orbit, which NASA says will help to allow diagnoses for extraterrestrial astronauts — and she also was able to culture heart cells while in space, to study how gravity outside of Earth impacts cell growth of the heart. Her research could help detect potential heart-related risks in prospective astronauts. Rubins has spent 300 days in space, among the most time a female astronaut has spent, and almost 13 hours in spacewalks. 

Astronaut is just one of Jessica Watkins' many titles. She's a geologist, environmental scientist, athlete, and writer, too. Hailing from Lafayette, Colorado, Watkins was selected for astronaut training in 2017, but her focus on studying Mars predates even her NASA recruitment (via NASA). As an undergraduate, she interned at the space agency's Ames Research Center, where she participated in research for the Phoenix Mars Lander mission, according to Sci Tech Daily. 

Watkins studied the surface of Mars while obtaining her doctorate in geology from UCLA — researching everything from geological mapping and spectral data. At the California Institute of Technology's Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Watkins studied and planned the everyday functions and tasks of Curiosity, a Mars rover, as it investigated a crater on the planet. And in 2009, Watkins led a NASA mission at the Marts Desert Research Station as a chief geologist, according to Space.com.

Boston native Stephanie Wilson brings more than two decades of astronaut experience to the Artemis team (via NASA). Before joining NASA in 1996, Wilson studied at Harvard and the University of Texas to obtain her education in aerospace engineering. A lengthy experience with the agency spans serving on the astronaut selection board, being a leader in the operations of the International Space Station, and three ventures into space totaling 42 days. 

During her time above the atmosphere, the National Air and Space Museum notes that Wilson was a part of equipment repairs and tests, while she also supported space walks and repairs with a robotic arm and oversaw the delivery of supplies and crew members to the space station. Wilson's many years of service to the skies and space have earned her two honorary doctorates, two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, and a Harvard Foundation Scientist of the Year Award.