A team of researchers led by CU Boulder is sending some unexpected hitchhikers to the moon: Twelve bags filled with baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), the same kind of hard-working cells that make bread rise and ferment beer and wine.

As early as Friday, a rocket taller than the Statue of Liberty is scheduled to blast off from a launch pad in Florida, carrying NASA's new Orion space capsule into Earth's orbit for the first time. From there, the spacecraft, designed to transport four astronauts, will begin a 42-day journey to the moon and back to Earth.

There aren't any humans aboard this mission, called Artemis 1. But that doesn't mean there won't be passengers. Three human mannequins, named Moonikin Campos, Helga and Zohar, will fly aboard Orion—as will four biological experiments, including one designed by a team at BioServe Space Technologies, a center in the Ann and H.J.

NASA's Artemis 1 mission is poised to take a key step toward returning humans to the moon after a half-century hiatus. The launch was scheduled for the morning of Aug. 29, 2022, but was postponed due to an issue with one of the rocket's engines. The next opportunity to launch the rocket is Sept. 2, 2022. The mission is a shakedown cruise—sans crew—for NASA's Space Launch System and Orion Crew Capsule.

The spacecraft is scheduled to travel to the moon, deploy some small satellites and then settle into orbit. NASA aims to practice operating the spacecraft, test the conditions crews will experience on and around the moon, and assure everyone that the spacecraft and any occupants can safely return to Earth.

The Conversation asked Jack Burns, a professor and space scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder and former member of the Presidential Transition Team for NASA, to describe the mission, explain what the Artemis program promises to do for space exploration, and reflect on how the space program has changed in the half-century since humans last set foot on the lunar surface.