Janet Kavandi has been to space three times, spending a total of 33 days beyond the Earth’s atmosphere in space shuttles and the International Space Station.

And while she is now very much earthbound as director of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, her vision reaches to the moon and far beyond into deep space.

Kavandi, Thursday’s keynote speaker at the monthly Akron Roundtable luncheon program in Quaker Station, said NASA intends to put people back on the moon in 2024 — some 52 years after man last walked there. The new moon program’s initial and unmanned space flight remains scheduled for the middle of next year.

Kavandi touched on that and other space-related topics as she talked about the research taking place at NASA Glenn, which has a budget of about $625 million and more than 3,200 employees. The 59-year-old Missouri native, promoted to Glenn NASA director in 2016, became an astronaut in 1994 and was on space flights in 1998, 2000 and 2001.

“We’re trying to go back to a place where we haven’t been in, oh, 50 years,” she said of the upcoming planned moon missions and establishment of a moon base. The 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s first landing on the moon is next month, she noted.

“Going back to the moon, a lot of people are wondering, why now?” Kavandi said. “Well, we have been steadily working toward getting to Mars.”

The International Space Station and planned moon landings are necessary steps toward launching people to Mars and keeping them safe for an extended period on the planet before they start the long journey back, she said. A Mars round trip, including staying a significant time on the planet’s surface, may last as long as three years, she said.


Appropriate name

The new moon mission is named after the Greek goddess Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo, who in turn provided the name for NASA’s first moon mission, Kavandi said.

“The ultimate destination is really Mars, not the moon,” she said. “We need the moon as a learning platform ... and then take us on to Mars.”

NASA is developing a new launch rocket, more powerful than the Saturn that hoisted the Apollo capsules in the 1960s and 1970s, to carry the under-development Orion crew capsule that will be used in upcoming moon and Mars missions.

The incremental steps involving the International Space Station and eventual moon base are needed to test concepts and technology to ensure that people will be able to safely get to Mars, Kavandi said. A top challenge is figuring out how to make Mars livable to safely provide humans there with adequate water, food, fuel and air, she said.

“If something goes wrong on Mars, we will have a really hard time saving someone if we don’t make sure all the equipment works well when we get there,” she said.

Kavandi said that it is possible NASA could launch people to Mars in nine to 15 years, depending on budget and other factors.

For young people thinking they might want to become an astronaut, Kavandi said they need to have a sense of adventure.

“If you don’t like camping, you won’t like space flight,” she said.

Besides space travel, NASA Glenn also does practical research in aviation and aeronautics, Kavandi said. The center is developing such things as electric aviation propulsion, better de-icing technologies and advanced materials.


Jim Mackinnon covers business. He can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him @JimMackinnonABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/JimMackinnonABJ