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Artemis I is on track for success, as NASA prepares for demise


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Part of the far side of the Moon looms just outside the Orion spacecraft

After orbiting the moon, NASA’s Orion spacecraft will land in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, putting the Artemis I mission on track. It’s too early to declare Artemis I a complete success — two of the mission’s top priorities come with demise — but the mission has helped prepare NASA for its ultimate goal of bringing humans back to the moon and eventually to Mars.

“The mission continues to proceed well and according to the planned mission record,” Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin told reporters on Thursday. “Currently on track to have a fully successful mission with some additional goals we’ve achieved along the way.”

The The Artemis I mission is out on November 16, put the unmanned Orion spacecraft into orbit around the moon to testing NASA’s deep space probe systems. Farthest away, Orion is a record 268,563 miles from earth, overcome distance that the Apollo 13 mission set in 1970.

ALSO: What is Artemis? Everything you need to know about NASA’s new moon mission

The spacecraft is currently in orbit re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and landed near Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Mexico’s Baja California, at around 12:40 p.m. Pacific time on December 11.

At that point, the Artemis I mission will achieve its primary goal: proving that Orion’s heat shield can withstand the high speeds and high temperatures it would experience under re-entry conditions. When Orion returns, it will travel about 24,500 miles per hour. The spacecraft will experience temperatures half as hot as the sun outside the heat shield.

On Sunday, NASA will also make its mission priority #3: recover Orion after it fell into the sea. NASA’s Exploratory Ground Systems Recovery Team is working with the US Navy to restore the spacecraft. The recovery team left San Diego for the splash site on November 7 and is currently at sea. They intended to arrive at the landing site 24 hours before the crash.

NASA originally planned to land off the coast of San Diego, California. Factors influencing the choice of landing site include spacecraft design limitations, said Sarafin; safety considerations restoration operations; and tested visual targets, with some discarded items, and with parachute deployment sequences.

However, a cold front moving over Southern California created less than ideal conditions at the original landing site. On Sunday, that area is expected to experience light rain, wind and intense waves. As a result, NASA moved the target landing site 300 nautical miles south.

NASA is using a “skip entry” maneuver to return Orion to Earth — a new technique that will allow NASA to land spacecraft off the west coast of North America. Using this technique, astronauts on future Artemis missions will experience about 4 G at peak acceleration — similar to what astronauts experience when returning from Earth orbit low range.

After Orion plunges, it will stay in the water for about two hours while NASA completes various tests, such as determining how much heat is generated on the capsule and how that will impact the inside. capsule. During that time, the recovery team will recover the discarded hardware before it sinks, as well as perform its own types of tests on the Orion, before towing it aboard a ship.

While the splash will address the first and third priorities of the Artemis I mission, goal #2 remains: to demonstrate the spacecraft’s operations and flight modes. That process began during the flight itself, when NASA teams collected vast amounts of data related to Orion’s communications, propulsion, and navigation systems.

Currently, NASA has linked down more than 140 GB of technical data and images that are being analyzed.

“We’ve seen really good system performance,” said Jim Geffre, NASA’s Orion Vehicle Integration Manager, in a separate interview with ZDNET.

For example, he said, the four large solar arrays on board the spacecraft generated about 1.7 kilowatts more electricity than expected. “It’s something that allows for more flexible operations for future missions.”

In addition, Orion’s thermal systems, on the whole, use less energy than expected. And for the propulsion system – which is key to getting Orion to the moon and back safely – “every burn is resolved,” Geffre said.

Once Orion is safely back on land, NASA will be able to retrieve more data recorded inside the spacecraft. Some components, such as some electronic boxes, will then be refurbished for the Artemis II mission.

“We have an incremental plan to reuse more and more vehicles,” Geffre explained to ZDNET. “Currently, with Artemis I, we have a handful of components, about 10 parts, we’ll get off the bus and fly to Artemis II. Then we’ll start using more… Section Our goal is to get maximum reusability, covering almost all systems.”

The Artemis II Questwhich NASA plans to launch in 2024, will send four astronauts on a trip around the moon.

Although NASA’s preparations for Artemis II are well underway, and “we’re finishing this mission,” Sarafin said, “We’re not going to let our guard down. We’ve got some tough work to do. front.”

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