For the flight, a full-size mannequin in an orange flight suit will occupy the pilot’s seat, equipped with vibration and acceleration sensors. The “commander” was named Moonikin Campos in a public competition, in honor of Arturo Campos, a Nasa engineer who helped save Apollo 13 from disaster by working out how to jury-rig its partially crippled electrical system to carry the astronauts at home. Two other mannequins made of material that simulates human tissue – heads and a female torso but no limbs – will measure cosmic radiation, one of the biggest dangers of spaceflight. They are called Helga and Zohar. One trunk tries on a protective vest from Israel. Unlike the SLS rocket below it, Orion has launched before, completing two orbits around Earth in 2014. This time, the European Space Agency’s service module will be attached for propulsion and solar power via four wings . In addition to three test dummies, the flight includes a number of deep space research projects. Ten shoebox-sized satellites will appear once Orion rockets toward the moon. These “cubes” were installed on the rocket a year ago, and the batteries for half of them could not be recharged as the launch was constantly delayed. NASA expects some to fail, given their low-cost, high-risk nature. Cubes measuring radiation should be fine, along with a demonstration of a solar sail targeting an asteroid. Orion will carry some pieces of moon rock collected by Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969, and a bolt from one of their rocket engines, salvaged from the sea a decade ago. Aldrin will not attend the launch, according to Nasa, but three of his former colleagues will be there: Walter Cunningham of Apollo 7, Tom Stafford of Apollo 10 and Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17, the next man to walk to the moon. Snoopy plush toys are a Nasa institution, derived from the name of the Apollo 10 lunar module that flew to the moon to test descent and landing procedures, but never managed to land. A Snoopy toy went aboard the space shuttle Columbia, and this time the cartoon character will be joined by Shaun the Sheep, to recognize the European Space Agency’s involvement. Their official purpose is to demonstrate zero gravity by floating around. The virtual astronauts’ official “flight kit” includes thousands of other items, many of which will become “space-thrown” souvenirs back on Earth. They include seeds to be planted to become ‘moon trees’, a Dead Sea pebble, mission patches, stickers, USB drives and national flags. Some Legos even made it aboard.
The Artemis 1 mission in numbers
Launch Site: Launchpad 39B, Nasa Kennedy Complex, Florida Release date: August 29, 2022 Start window: 8.33am-10.33am EDT (US East Coast Time) Mission Duration: 42 days, 3 hours, 20 minutes Destination: far retrograde orbit around the Moon Total shipping distance: 1.3m miles (2.1m km) Splashdown: Pacific Ocean, off the coast of San Diego Maximum return speed: 25,000 mph (40,000 km/h) Splashdown: October 10, 2022
With the Associated Press
