China watching ‘like a hawk’ as US Artemis 2 crew fixes toilet on moon trip

Artemis 2 crew members (from left) Jeremy Hansen, Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover appear via video link during a mission update on Thursday.

Photo: NASA via AP China would be closely watching the US Artemis 2 lunar fly-by mission, which has already encountered challenges, including a malfunctioning toilet soon after launch, an expert said.

As China gears up to bring astronauts to the moon, the first human return to lunar orbit since the Apollo era over 50 years ago could offer Beijing valuable technical insights.

Quentin Parker, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Hong Kong, described China as watching the Artemis 2 mission “like a hawk”.

Parker said China and other interested spacefaring countries would be “looking attentively at everything they can glean from all the experiences of the Artemis crew and the Artemis mission”.

China was likely to note that the Orion spacecraft’s toilet had malfunctioned just hours into the mission, involving one of the most “fundamental” systems on board, he added.

On Wednesday local time, the Space Launch System carrying the Orion spacecraft and a four-member Artemis 2 crew took off from US space agency Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida for a 10-day trip around the moon.

Parker said it was important for lunar spacecraft to have a backup such as a secondary toilet or a system that could be used if the main one stopped working, as well as expertise on the team to resolve any issues that arose.

The Artemis 2 crew also experienced a software issue on a personal computing device running Microsoft Outlook on board, prompting the ground team to troubleshoot remotely.

Parker said China had been learning lessons along the way from their own experiences and experimentation and that any insights from the Artemis 2 mission could be useful. “I think there are great lessons that can be learned from both [the American and Chinese space programmes], especially if there’s a bit more collaborative sharing and engagement,” he added, noting this was very difficult now because of geopolitics.

Parker observed there had been considerable debate about who would land astronauts on the moon first this century, especially as the Artemis programme had faced delays.

If things went according to plan, the US could still get there first, though China would be close behind, he said.

Nasa aims to have boots on the moon during the Artemis 4 mission in 2028 or 2029, while China’s goal is to do so by 2030 using its

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