Jenni Gibbons | |
---|---|
Born | Jennifer Anne MacKinnon Sidey 3 August 1988 Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
Education | McGill University (BEng) Jesus College, Cambridge (PhD) |
Space career | |
CSA astronaut | |
Selection | 2017 CSA Group NASA Group 22 (2017) |
Jennifer "Jenni" Anne MacKinnon Sidey-Gibbons (born 3 August 1988) is a Canadian astronaut, engineer, and academic. She was selected by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) as one of the two members of the 2017 CSA Group alongside Joshua Kutryk. In 2023, CSA assigned her to be Jeremy Hansen's backup for the Artemis II lunar flyby mission. As of the 2023 CSA Artemis announcement, she uses her married name, Jenni Gibbons. [1]
Jennifer Anne MacKinnon Sidey was born on 3 August 1988 in Calgary. [2] [3] She earned a Bachelor of Engineering with honours in mechanical engineering from McGill University, where she conducted research in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the Flight Research Laboratory of the National Research Council Canada on flame propagation in microgravity. [3]
In 2015, she completed a PhD in engineering at Jesus College, Cambridge. Her doctoral research, supervised by Professor Nondas Mastorakos, focused on combustion processes. [2]
Before joining the CSA, Gibbons was a lecturer in internal combustion engines at the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Her research centered on turbulent flame dynamics and pollutant reduction in combustion systems. [4] She also taught undergraduate and graduate students in the Energy, Fluid Mechanics, and Turbomachinery Division on topics such as energy production, thermodynamics, and flame physics.[ citation needed ]
In 2016, Gibbons received the Institution of Engineering and Technology's Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award and a Royal Academy of Engineering Young Engineer of the Year Award.[ citation needed ]
Gibbons was selected by the CSA in 2017 as part of its fourth astronaut recruitment campaign, joining Joshua Kutryk in the 2017 CSA Group. [5] [6] She was the third female astronaut candidate chosen by the CSA, following Roberta Bondar and Julie Payette. At 28 years old, she became the youngest astronaut candidate ever selected by the agency. [7]
In July 2017, Gibbons relocated to Houston, to complete the two-year NASA Astronaut Candidate Training Program at the Johnson Space Center, training alongside the 2017 NASA astronaut class.
On 22 November 2023, during a public ceremony at CSA headquarters, Gibbons was announced as the backup for Jeremy Hansen on the Artemis II mission. The mission, part of NASA's Artemis program, is slated to fly no earlier than April 2026. [8] [9] [10]
Catherine Grace "Cady" Coleman is an American chemist, engineer, former United States Air Force colonel, and retired NASA astronaut. She is a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions, and departed the International Space Station on May 23, 2011, as a crew member of Expedition 27 after logging 159 days in space.
The Canadian Space Agency is the national space agency of Canada, established in 1990 by the Canadian Space Agency Act.
Stephanie Diana Wilson is an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. She flew to space onboard three Space Shuttle missions, and is the second African American woman to go into space, after Mae Jemison. As of 2022, her 42 days in space are the second most of any female African American astronaut, having been surpassed by Jessica Watkins in 2022.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. Established in 1958, it succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the US space development effort a distinct civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. It has since led most of America's space exploration programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the 1968–1972 Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA supports the International Space Station (ISS) along with the Commercial Crew Program, and oversees the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System for the lunar Artemis program.
Takuya Onishi is a Japanese astronaut who was selected for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2009. He spent four months on board the International Space Station in 2016.
Jeremy Roger Hansen is a Canadian astronaut, fighter pilot, physicist and former aquanaut. He was selected to join the Canadian Space Agency in the 2009 CSA selection along with David Saint-Jacques. Prior to his selection as one of Canada's astronauts, Hansen was a Royal Canadian Air Force captain, piloting the CF-18 fighter jet at CFB Cold Lake, Alberta. He has since been promoted to the rank of colonel.
Gregory Reid Wiseman is an American astronaut, engineer, and naval aviator. He served as Chief of the Astronaut Office until November 14, 2022.
The Canadian Astronaut Corps is a unit of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) that selects, trains, and provides astronauts as crew members for U.S. and Russian space missions. The corps has four active members, able to serve on the International Space Station (ISS).
Women have flown and worked in outer space since almost the beginning of human spaceflight. A considerable number of women from a range of countries have worked in space, though overall women are still significantly less often chosen to go to space than men, and by June, 2020 constitute only 12% of all astronauts who have been to space. Yet, the proportion of women among space travelers is increasing substantially over time. The first woman to fly in space was Soviet Valentina Tereshkova, aboard the Vostok 6 space capsule on June 16–19, 1963. Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker, rather than a pilot like the male cosmonauts flying at the time, chosen for propaganda value, her devotion to the Communist Party, and her years of experience in sport parachuting, which she used on landing after ejecting from her capsule. Women were not qualified as space pilots and workers co-equal to their male counterparts until 1982. By October 2021, most of the 70 women who have been to space have been United States citizens, with missions on the Space Shuttle and on the International Space Station. Other countries have flown one, two or three women in human spaceflight programs. Additionally one woman of dual Iranian-US citizenship has participated as a tourist on a US spaceflight.
Victor Jerome Glover is a NASA astronaut of the class of 2013 and pilot on the first operational flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon to the International Space Station. Glover is a captain and F/A-18 pilot in the U.S. Navy and is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. He was a crew member of Expedition 64, and served as a station systems flight engineer.
Christina Koch is an American engineer and NASA astronaut of the class of 2013. She received Bachelor of Science degrees in electrical engineering and physics and a Master of Science in electrical engineering at North Carolina State University. She also did advanced study while working at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Just before becoming an astronaut, she served at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as station chief for American Samoa.
Artemis II is a scheduled mission of the NASA-led Artemis program. It will use the second launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and include the first crewed mission of the Orion spacecraft. The mission is scheduled to take place no earlier than April 2026. Four astronauts will perform a flyby of the Moon and return to Earth, becoming the first crew to travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. Artemis II will be the first crewed launch from Launch Complex 39B of the Kennedy Space Center since STS-116 in 2006.
The Lunar Gateway, or simply Gateway, is a space station which is planned to be assembled in orbit around the Moon. The Gateway is intended to serve as a communication hub, science laboratory, and habitation module for astronauts as part of the Artemis program. It is a multinational collaborative project: participants include NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). The Gateway is planned to be the first space station beyond low Earth orbit.
Argotec is an Italian aerospace engineering company, founded in 2008 in Turin, Italy by David Avino, with offices in Maryland and Florida, USA and operations at EAC in Cologne, Germany. The company is engaged in the production of small satellites and the development of engineering solutions aimed at supporting the comfort of astronauts in orbit.
NASA Astronaut Group 22 is a group of twelve NASA astronauts selected in June 2017. They were joined by two Canadian Space Agency astronauts for training.
Blue Moon is a family of lunar landers and their associated infrastructure, intended to carry humans and cargo to the Moon, under development by a consortium led by Blue Origin and including Lockheed Martin, Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics. Two versions of Blue Moon are under development: a robotic lander originally planned to land on the Moon in 2024 and delayed to 2025, and a larger human lander planned to land a crew of four astronauts on the lunar surface for the NASA Artemis V mission in 2030.
Joshua Kutryk is a Canadian astronaut, test pilot, fighter pilot and engineer. He was selected by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) as one of the two members of the 2017 CSA Group alongside Jenni Sidey.
The Artemis program is a Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), formally established in 2017 via Space Policy Directive 1. It is intended to reestablish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The program's stated long-term goal is to establish a permanent base on the Moon to facilitate human missions to Mars.
Artemis V is the fifth planned mission of NASA's Artemis program and the first crewed flight of the Blue Moon lander. The mission will launch four astronauts on a Space Launch System rocket and an Orion to the Lunar Gateway and will be the third lunar landing of the Artemis program. In addition, Artemis V will also deliver two new elements to the Gateway Space Station.
HERACLES is a planned robotic transport system to and from the Moon by Europe (ESA), Japan (JAXA) and Canada (CSA) that will feature a lander called the European Large Logistic Lander, a Lunar Ascent Element, and a rover. The lander can be configured for different operations such as up to 1.5 tons of cargo delivery, sample-returns, or prospecting resources found on the Moon.