If all goes as planned, some time early next year, four astronauts will blast off on a mission that's been a long time coming: a return to the moon.

The last time anyone visited the moon was in December 1972, when American astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt walked on the lunar surface, while Ronald Evans orbited above.

The last time a Canadian visited the moon? Never.

But that will change early next year when astronaut Jeremy Hansen, along with his three American crewmates, will circle the moon as part of the Artemis II mission, giving him a view of the moon's far side and of Earth unlike any astronaut has seen before.

Depending on the launch date, the astronauts will travel somewhere between 7,400 and 11,000 kilometres beyond the moon's orbit.

NASA's Artemis program is a ret

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