STEM-Talk: Doug Cooke talks about strengths and flaws of NASA’s Artemis mission

Four days after the astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission splashed down in the Pacific, STEM-Talk host Dr. Ken Ford interviewed Doug Cooke, an aerospace consultant who spent 38 years at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Ford, IHMC founder and a former Associate Director of NASA’s Center of Excellence in Information Technology, talked to Cooke about the Artemis mission’s 10-day roundtrip from the Earth to the Moon as well as NASA’s plans to return humans to the lunar surface by 2028.

During his 38 years at NASA, Cooke played critical roles in the Space Shuttle, International Space Station and many other spaceflight programs. During the last three years of his NASA career, he served as Associate Administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, which oversees the development of systems critical to NASA’s plans for human exploration of the Moon and Mars, including the Artemis program.

Several times in his career, Doug served under Dr. Mike Griffin, our guest on episode 189, who served in a variety of senior leadership roles, including NASA Administrator. Mike and his colleague Dr. Lisa Porter shared their concerns in episode 189 that NASA’s Artemis program is seriously flawed and that the U.S. is at risk of falling behind China in the race to the Moon. In today’s interview, Cooke shares that he, too, believes the Artemis program is flawed.

In episode 195, which is now available on your favorite podcast apps, Cooke also discusses:

         — His key takeaways of the Artemis II mission as well as his thoughts about the Artemis program more broadly.

         — The success of the Apollo program.

         — Issues with the Artemis mission architecture.

         — His belief that NASA needs to come up with a plan-B for the Artemis  mission architecture.

         — The role of private industry (i.e., commercial space) in space exploration.

         — The challenges and complexities of sending humans to Mars.

         — How China could one day surpass America’s leadership role in human spaceflight.

STEM-Talk is an award-winning podcast from the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition that hosts conversations with the leading minds in science and technology. Listen on your favorite platform or browse our library at https://www.ihmc.us/stemtalks/