NASA Names Moonikin – Conversations With Carmen

NASA selects a name for a manikin it plans to send into space. Fox’s Carmen Roberts reports.

Commander Moonikin Campos

When NASA launches a test flight of Artemis I around the moon later this year, a male manikin will fly in the commander’s seat. NASA held a contest to name him and after sorting through more than 300,000 votes, the winner is “Commander Moonikin Campos” in honor of Arturo Campos, who was a key player in bringing Apollo 13 safely back to Earth. Commander Campos will fly in the Orion spacecraft wearing the same type of survival suit astronauts will use and sensors to record radiation, vibration and acceleration data during the flight. Carmen Roberts. Fox News.

Arturo Campos was asleep in his home when he got the call from his colleagues at NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center (now Johnson Space Center) on April 13, 1970. Something had gone wrong with the Apollo 13 mission, and he needed to report to work immediately.

Commander Moonikin Campos will fly on the Artemis I test flight set for November 22, 2021. Using robots and humans to explore more than ever before, NASA also will use the Moon for humanity’s next giant leap – sending the first astronauts to Mars.

Two female manikins will also be on the November test flight. Israel’s and Germany’s space agencies named them “Zohar” and “Helga.”

Data from the Moonikins will help NASA protect astronauts on Artemis II. That flight in 2023 will be the first mission in more than 50 years to send a human crew around the Moon.