How a chance meeting shaped Canadian Jeremy Hansen's mission to the Moon

Long before he was chosen to orbit the Moon in the ongoing Artemis II mission, Jeremy Hansen was a young cadet at the Royal Military College of Canada. He carried a dream - and had a chance interaction that would help shape his future.

In 1995, during his first year at the military college, Hansen met one of his heroes: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

That was before Hadfield had served as commander of the International Space Station. But Hansen saw in his compatriot much of what he aspired to be: a fighter pilot and an astronaut.

Hansen asked Hadfield for his email address, and got it on the spot.

The brief encounter marked the beginning of a journey that would see Hansen follow closely in his hero's footsteps - first as a fighter pilot, and then by joining the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in 2009.

Throughout his astronaut training, his mentor along the way was Hadfield, a young Hansen told the BBC in 2014.

The simple but lasting advice he was given: follow what makes you passionate.

"Jeremy has been getting ready for this flight since he was five years old," Hadfield told Canadian singer Emm Gryner in a podcast in March.

Hansen, now 50, grew up on a farm near London, Ontario, where his fascination with aviation began early.

As a child, he came across a page in an encyclopedia featuring Neil Armstrong and the picture of an astronaut on the Moon from the 1969 Apollo mission.

"That page is still burnt in my brain," Hansen told Spaceflight Now in an interview posted last month.

Soon after, he transformed his childhood treehouse into his own imaginary rocket ship.

In his teens, he went on to join the air cadets youth programme, and to study space science and physics at university.

He eventually became a fighter pilot, flying CF-18s out of the army base in Cold Lake, Alberta, and working with North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad).

Fourteen years after joining the CSA, Hansen was selected for Artemis II: the first crewed mission to travel around the Moon in more than 50 years.

Over the course of 10 days, the crew of four astronauts will travel farther from Earth than any human before them.

Hansen is the only non-American on board. He is joined by mission commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and fellow mission specialist Christina Koch.

In an interview with the CSA, Hansen said he was aware that the Artemis II mission might not go smoothly.

"To do something that has never been done before means that your team is very likely to face failure," Hansen said. "I like the fact that in space, we are committed to bold goals to the extent that we will not let periodic failure stop our forward progress," he said.

For the mission, Hansen is carrying four Moon-shaped pendants, each with a birthstone representing his wife and three teenage children.

His blue spacesuit has a mission patch he commissioned Anishinaabe artist Henry Guimond to design, with contributions from Dave Courchene III of Sagkeeng First Nation, Manitoba.

The heptagonal shape and the animals on it refer to a set of indigenous teachings that guide how people should treat one another - with love, respect, courage and humility.

Hansen has said the patch is his way of recognising the Indigenous peoples in Canada and their traditional knowledge.

Earlier this week, he told the BBC science editor Rebecca Morelle and 13 Minutes podcast presenter Tim Peake that he was excited for his first views of Earth during his first hour of space flight.

He anticipated that the mission would later afford him a view with the Moon in the foreground and Earth hanging in the distance.

"I hope humanity will stop for a moment when four humans are on the far side of the Moon, and just look at some of the imagery that we are sharing - and just be reminded that we can do a better job as humans of just lifting each other up," he said.

"Not destroying but creating together."