The Artemis 1 mission is a test flight of enormous importance. The launch, scheduled for Monday, will see an unmanned Orion module orbit the Moon before returning to Earth. It will gather critical data before the next stages of the mission – a manned launch of the Orion module into lunar orbit, followed by the first mission to land humans on the Moon since 1972. Here’s what you need to know ahead of Monday’s launch.
What is Artemis 1?
This is the first stage of the Artemis mission, which has the ultimate goal of establishing a long-term presence on the surface of the Moon. The stage is set Monday for the launch of the Artemis I mission. NASA will launch an unmanned Orion spacecraft into orbit around the Moon on a test run to ensure manned missions are as safe as possible. The Orion spacecraft launches from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on NASA’s giant rocket called SLS. It is, according to NASA, the most powerful rocket in the world, capable of carrying more payloads into deep space than any other vehicle. At nearly 100 meters tall, the SLS can deliver 4 million kilograms of thrust. Two minutes after launch, two boosters will detach from the rocket, followed by the core stage (which acts as the backbone of the rocket, doing most of the heavy lifting). These parts will fall into the Pacific Ocean as the Orion spacecraft continues its journey to the Moon. Orion will travel 450,000 km from Earth and thousands of kilometers beyond the Moon during the four- to six-week mission. “We’re going to stress it out and test it. We’re going to make it do things we’d never do with a crew to try to make it as safe as possible,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. Wednesday. Orion will be propelled to the Moon by a service module provided by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Flight test dummy
The 3-meter-tall Orion spacecraft can accommodate four astronauts. A full-size dummy in an orange flight suit will occupy the pilot’s seat for this flight, equipped with vibration and acceleration sensors. Two other mannequins made of material that simulates human tissue will measure cosmic radiation, which is one of the biggest dangers of spaceflight. The flight will also see ten shoebox-sized satellites pop out of the capsule once it’s on its way to the Moon, which will measure radiation, among other things.
What happens after Artemis 1?
After Artemis I comes Artemis 2 and 3, NASA’s first manned lunar missions in five decades. Assuming all goes according to plan with the first test mission and subsequent missions are not affected by the same delays that plagued Artemis 1, a second test flight around the Moon – this time manned – is scheduled for 2024. If this goes according to plan, Artemis 3 should go ahead a year later. This will be the first manned lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972. It is also intended to be the first mission to land a woman on the Moon. The missions would include testing the systems needed to create a gateway base in lunar orbit, which would be the basis for missions to the lunar surface. With a long-term presence on or around the Moon, it will then be used for future missions further afield, including Mars. “This was not a job of one or two people. It was teams of hundreds of people who came from different backgrounds, different experiences that made this happen together,” said Nicholas Nugent, project engineer at Stennis Space Center. “We’re going to launch the rocket that these people built. How cool is that? You can say ‘I worked on this rocket,’ and they’re working on the second and the third and the fourth and the fifth,” said Lonnie Dutreix, director of Michoud. Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
How much did it all cost?
Artemis missions have been plagued by delays and technical glitches, so there is a lot of pressure for a Monday launch. The cost of Artemis 1 has risen to $4 billion (€4 billion), and the entire program will have returned NASA at least $93 billion (€93 billion) by the time astronauts land on the Moon again. “This is a test flight, all right, and it’s not without risk. We’ve analyzed the risk as best we can, and we’ve also mitigated it as best we can,” NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana said before the launch. “But we’re emphasizing Orion beyond what it was actually designed for. In preparation for sending it to the moon with a crew and we want to make sure that it works absolutely perfectly when we do that and that we understand all the risks. We will learn a lot from this test flight.”
