NASA’s Artemis mission is scheduled to begin this Monday, with the launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The launch of the SLS, an unmanned flight with the Orion capsule attached to the top, marks the beginning of the program with which the United States intends to return to the surface of the Moon in 2025, one year later than planned, placing the first female astronaut and the first black astronaut on lunar soil.
The launch, which can be followed live, will take place from the base of the US space agency NASA, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the United States, with a two-hour “window of opportunity” that opens at 1:30 p.m. . in Lisbon. .
But if the launch is successful, and after going around the Earth, the rocket, of which in the end only the upper module will remain, will give the last impulse that will place Orion in the path of the Moon approximately an hour and a half after takeoff. . -off.
This morning, a detected fuel leak interrupted the countdown to the launch of the test flight of the new rocket, without a crew, reappearing in the same place where another leak had already been overcome in a countdown test carried out in spring, he explained. the AP news agency.
Upon detecting the leak, launch controllers halted the supply operation, which had already been delayed by an hour due to thunderstorms off the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA believes that it will still be possible to carry out today the launch of the new lunar rocket to place a manned capsule in lunar orbit, despite the detection of a fuel leak, according to the US space agency.
NASA Deputy Launch Director Jeremy Graeber said launch controllers were eventually able to reduce the leak to a safe and acceptable level, where it held steady as nearly a million gallons of fuel filled the large rocket’s center tanks.
Returning to the Moon “is good news for science, but also for humanity”
In statements to TSFastronomer and science communicator Miguel Gonçalves explains the importance of the Artemisa mission.
“Returning to the Moon and this time with plans for much more sustained and much longer stays is always good news for science, but also for humanity. Cargo and crew to the Moon. And, if we want to focus specifically on this mission Artemis I “, is very interesting, because all the components of the rocket and the capsule, which in the future will carry a crew, have already been individually tested. The flight is a kind of attempt to understand how the orchestra works as a whole. For example, the largest heat shield manufactured by mankind will be tested. When the Orion capsule returns to Earth, this heat shield will be tested by fire,” he says. .
In addition to the Orion spacecraft, the SLS will carry ten scientific microsatellites (the size of a shoebox) that, after being launched into space, will allow the effects of radiation, an asteroid or the icy surface of the Moon to be studied.
Aboard Orion, which has already made a test flight around the Earth in 2014, are chips of lunar rocks collected by the first and second man to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, in July 1969. Inside The ship also travels three mannequins that simulate astronauts. One of them, instead of the commander, will be equipped with sensors that will measure the effects of acceleration and vibration. The other two, two “women”, are made of materials that mimic human bones or organs. One of these two mannequins is dressed in an anti-radiation suit. The sensors will measure the rates of radiation received on board.
The spacecraft has a European module (from the European Space Agency, ESA) that will take it to its destination and back “home”, allowing astronauts on future missions to have control of light, water, oxygen, nitrogen and temperature. .
The trip to the Moon, which will last about four days, will have a very peculiar passenger, the Shaun Sheep doll, who will be half a million kilometers from Earth (the International Space Station, where the astronauts temporarily live and work, is approximately 400 kilometers away).
In the first Artemis mission (Artemis I), which has a total duration of about a month and a half, Orion will fly around the Moon, after separating from the SLS rocket, in a distant orbit for a few weeks before returning to Earth and moor in the Pacific Ocean.
Orion will fly about 100 kilometers above the Moon’s surface and then use the gravitational pull of Earth’s natural satellite to create a new, deeper orbit at about 70,000 kilometers. The spacecraft will remain in this orbit for about six days to collect data and for mission controllers to assess its performance, orbiting the Moon in the opposite direction that the Moon orbits Earth.
To return to Earth, Orion will fly by the closest Moon, again about 100 kilometers away, and use its gravity to accelerate towards the planet. Various cameras inside the spacecraft will allow the journey to be followed from a passenger’s point of view, and cameras placed at the ends of the solar panels, which power Orion, will take pictures of the spacecraft with the Moon and the Earth in the background. .
According to ESA and NASA, Orion will stay in space longer than any other astronaut spacecraft, without docking with a space station, and will return to Earth faster and hotter. The spacecraft has the largest heat shield ever built – five meters in diameter – and when re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere it will withstand a speed of 40,000 kilometers per hour and a temperature of about 2800 ° C (practically half the temperature of the surface of the Sun). .
Then the speed will be reduced to 480 kilometers per hour by the atmosphere and 32 kilometers per hour by three parachutes, until the spacecraft docks in San Diego, in the United States. A few hours later, Orion will retire to a US Navy ship.
ARTEMISA PROJECT
After the Artemis I mission, which cost more than four billion dollars (3.9 billion euros), NASA hopes to bring astronauts to orbit the Moon in 2024 (Artemis II) and in 2025 to its surface (Artemis II).
The first step of the Artemis mission (Artemis I) is to put the crew capsule into orbit so that it can circle the moon for six weeks, allowing NASA to perform a series of tests on the system, in support of vital before people get on. meeting.
Artemis II has the same goal as the first: to bring instruments and astronauts to the moon who will make preparations for the safe arrival of humans.
Artemis III will mark the return of humanity to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. NASA has identified 30 regions near the South Pole of the moon. Each region represents multiple opportunities to search for lunar resources.
With Artemis, NASA is drawing on more than 50 years of exploration experience to rekindle “America’s passion” for space exploration. When it comes to economic opportunity, NASA’s mission will enable a growing lunar economy, fueling new industries, supporting job growth, and promoting a skilled workforce.
On the other hand, Artemis will also explore more of the moon than ever before together with commercial and international partners. Along the way, the mission will engage and inspire a new audience: the Artemis generation.
“Everything we build, everything we study, everything we do, prepares us to go (to the moon),” reads the NASA official website.
With the Artemis lunar program, NASA hopes to “establish sustainable missions” to the Moon starting in 2028 and then send astronauts to Mars. The departure for these lunar missions or for Mars will be carried out from a space station that will be installed in orbit of the Moon, the Gateway.
*News updated at 13:45
Source: TSF
