Tumwater woman a key planner on NASA’s Artemis 1 Moon mission

SEATTLE — In a few days we’re hoping to see the Artemis 1 rocket launch for a trip to the Moon.

NASA had to delay the latest launch due to Hurricane Nicole making landfall on the eastern Florida coast.

The launch is slated for Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 10:04 p.m. Pacific Time.

One of the key planners of the mission is Tumwater native Nujoud Merancy, NASA’s chief of exploration and mission planning. Merancy works with a team to coordinate all elements of NASA missions and that includes Artemis 1. Merancy sat down with KIRO 7′s Ranji Sinha in the studio ahead of the latest launch attempt.

Here is some of the Q&A edited for brevity.

Ranji: I am Ranji Sinha here in the KIRO 7′s studios joined by Nujoud Merancy of NASA. Thank you for joining us here in person. I’ve spoken to you over Zoom, but it’s nice to meet the woman behind the mission.

Nujoud: One of many.

Ranji: Nujoud, first off, tell us your official title with NASA.

Nujoud: Right now, I’m the chief of the exploration mission planning office at Johnson Space Center, so we’re the team that’s been putting together and integrating the mission.

Ranji: Nujoud, I’m sorry, I’m just so frustrated — scrubbed (launch) again! Pushed and delayed again! This time because of a hurricane!

Nujoud: It happens, right? We launch over the ocean for a reason, so you’re safe, you’re away from everything, but it does put you at the mercy of Florida hurricanes. That’s unfortunately what happened this time, but hopefully we’ll be ready to go very soon again.

Ranji: Why are we going back (to the moon)? What is our goal?

Nujoud: We’re going back to the Moon for many reasons. There are three broad categories: first, the scientific interest. The ability to study the Moon, study the processes on the Moon, study the things that have impacted the Moon over time.

Nujoud: The technology developing these systems is very hard. We tend to push the envelope on technology, and that technology comes back to benefit Earth, too.

Nujoud: Third, just the economic benefit of going, driving programs and all of the amazing companies working in the aerospace industry today. It stimulates the economy, so lots of different reasons.

Ranji: The Apollo missions went to visit the Moon. We visited. This time we’re going to stay. Is that correct?

Nujoud: That’s correct. Artemis 1 is the first of we hope to be many decades of space exploration. So starting at the Moon, building out the systems for a cislunar platform for our gateway orbiting laboratory and surface systems so we can do deep space exploration…to go on to Mars and continue space exploration.

It’s not necessarily that you go to the Moon and then go to Mars. That would actually cost more performance wise, propellant, things like that. But a lot of the systems we need on Mars are analogous to what we need on the Moon. Fission nuclear power, potentially long duration habitation. A lot of the tech we develop for the Moon that would then be useful for Mars. We can do a lot of work on these Moon missions to feed the Mars missions down the road.

Ranji: How is it for you with your team getting up to that point to launch?

Nujoud: We have a rocket a space launch system, we have Orion spacecraft, we have exploration ground systems which is Kennedy Space Center. The recovery teams. Putting all those pieces together is really mission planning. Where are we going how long and why. So our team is actually working with all the programs across all the centers to pull together what is the mission we’re doing. We ensure that it is a mission that is flyable, for example.

Ranji: So no pressure — low stress?

Nujoud: It literally is rocket science.

Ranji: You hail from our area. You grew up in Tumwater.

Nujoud: That’s correct Tumwater, Washington.

Ranji: How were you inspired to join NASA?

Nujoud: I’ve always loved aircraft, spaceflight, reading about Apollo as a kid — just really science and engineering in general. Growing up, I truly just wanted to go into aerospace. I went to the University of Washington and you graduate and you can get jobs in this industry right out of college. That’s what I did. I first started working on the space station, the International Space Station out of college, and moved to Houston, Texas.

Ranji: This one’s (launch attempt) going to be a night launch potentially and that is cool. Tell people why, because a lot of people like you said, ‘Oh, I can’t see it during the day.’ Why is this cooler?

Nujoud: Literally, the time we launch is based on where the Earth has rotated and where the Moon is. I actually really like night launches because you see that engine flow for a long, long time. If you’re in a day launch, you will lose sight of it after a couple of minutes off the pad. It’s really exciting. I’m pretty sure my stomach’s going to knot up.

Ranji: Hard question: Come on, when are we getting to Mars? What’s the year, what’s the time?

Nujoud: There’s so many systems we need to build and develop, I’m not going to commit to a year. Hopefully, in the 2030s we’ve built all the systems up to get to Mars.

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