NASA and SpaceX are partnering to send a mannequin to the moon. And the mannequin has been named “Campos” through crowdsourcing. The name was chosen to honor Arturo Campos, a Mexican American NASA engineer who was one of the heroes of the miracle rescue of the 1970 Apollo 13 mission.
Campos is expected to be launched with an uncrewed Artemis I mission slated for November. The human-sized figure will be dressed in a first-gen Crew Survival System. The spacesuit has been undergoing testing. It will also be equipped with dual radiation sensors.
Campos will be providing data about what crew members will likely experience on the 2023 Artemis II spaceflight.
Hero of Apollo 13
On April 13, 1970, NASA astronauts Fred Haise, James Lovell, and John Swigert were in Apollo 13 speeding through space to the moon.
Then, came an explosion. And Jim Lovell contacted mission control. “Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” Lovell said.
NASA had not prepared for astronauts getting stuck-in-space 200,000 miles from home.
