No one on this geology team will be going to the moon, they are not astronauts. There are no geologist-astronauts on this first mission. This was one of the criticisms of the Apollo program, especially from scientists. Harrison Schmitt is the only geologist to have been to the moon, on Apollo 17, the last Apollo mission, in 1972, and he is the last person to have walked on the moon.
I hope in future the Artemis programme sends more geologists to the moon for some proper science and not just trophy collecting.
Well that tells me two things. Firstly, NASA needs to start giving its geologists astronaut training. Secondly, that I shouldn't have only skimmed the media release.
Boo NASA, let the rocklovers go to the moon too, it's their dream location.
The headline is a little misleading. It’s saying that they selected the geology team that will plan the science mission for the astronauts, not that the geologists will go
Thanks, a reread of the article only makes it clearer the astronauts and geologists are separate teams in the third paragraph. I had thought they just... had people with educations in both areas. Surely there's one person out there who is good at/capable of both being an astronaut and a geologist who would want to go?
It’s the budget for the earthbound scientists who will be handling the geology side of the mission. The astronauts can’t know everything – this is their expert ground team for one part of the mission.