On Monday, August 29, NASA plans to launch the Orion spacecraft from the world’s most powerful rocket for a trip around the Moon. This launch of the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission is a step toward the goal of landing humans on the moon in 2025.
“With a successful launch of Artemis 1, NASA and the US will regain the ability to send humans to the moon,” said Bradley L. Jolliff, the Scott Rudolph Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at the University of Washington in St. . Louis and director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.
“We lost this capability nearly 50 years ago when the last of the Saturn V rockets were retired after the Apollo 17 mission. Artemis 1 will pave the way for the next generation of astronauts to once again explore a world other than our own.”
Artemis represents the next big leap in human space exploration, starting with a viable return to the moon, Jolliff said.
“In this case, ‘sustainable’ means that the Artemis missions will not be Apollo-like excursions,” he said. “Instead of those short trips to explore a specific location and then return home to Earth, the idea is to learn how to live and work in deep space, beyond low Earth orbit, where the International Space Station for many years.”
Learning to live and work on the moon is a major challenge because astronauts will have to deal with radiation in deep space, including variable radiation from the sun, lunar dust, extreme temperatures and other issues, he explained.
“The astronauts – and the multitude of engineers and scientists who support them – will explore and learn how to use resources on the moon, such as the production of oxygen and water from lunar soil or buried ice at the poles, especially at the south pole of the Moon where It is known that there is buried ice,” Jolliff said.
“Many nations, not just the United States, are interested in establishing a long-term presence on the moon,” he said. “This presence will be the starting point for further human exploration to other destinations, especially Mars. It will be possible to use hydrogen and oxygen mined and refined on the moon as fuel and life support resources for travel to these other destinations.”
The moon also remains a valuable place for further scientific exploration, and this will be part of Artemis’ goals.
“As Earth’s companion in space, the moon records much of Earth’s early history to help us better understand our past, including events that took place in the early solar system,” Jolliff said.
He recently wrote a perspective article in Physics Today on the scientific legacy of the Apollo program, noting that “Apollo surface samples gave us the first look at weathering due to exposure to galactic cosmic rays, energetic solar particles, and meteorites, ranging from microscopic in asteroids”.
As a member of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera science team, Jolliff surveys the lunar surface, connecting what can be seen from orbit with what is known about the moon through the study of lunar meteorites and Apollo samples.
Jolliff also leads the University of Washington team that is part of NASA’s Apollo Next Generation sample analysis program. He is a co-investigator on the university’s Interdisciplinary Consortium for the Evaluation of Volatile Origins (ICE Five-O), a NASA Virtual Institute for Solar System Research.
“Some 50 years after Apollo, it is time to continue lunar exploration and for the US to be the leader in what will undoubtedly be an international effort,” Jolliffe said.
Where exactly will the astronauts land on the moon? NASA is going to tell us Provided by Washington University in St. Louis
Reference: Artemis launch brings us closer to space exploration goals (2022, August 26) Retrieved August 26, 2022, from
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