NASA plans to launch the Artemis I mission on Monday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule on a more than month-long journey around the moon. –
This non-explosive launch marks the launch of the most powerful rocket ever assembled and kicks off NASA’s long-awaited return to the Moon’s surface. This is the first mission in NASA’s Artemis Moon program, which is expected to send the agency’s astronauts to the moon on a third mission in 2025.
While Artemis I will not carry an astronaut, nor land on the moon, the mission is important to demonstrate that NASA’s monster rocket and deep space capsule can live up to its promised capabilities. surname. Artemis I has been delayed for years, with the program exceeding its budget by billions of dollars.
NASA’s Artemis I Moon rocket launched to Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 16, 2022.
Chandan Khanna | AFP | beautiful pictures
The Artemis I mission represents an important turning point in NASA’s plans to go to the moon.
Despite the delays and the bulk of NASA’s relatively small budget by federal agency standards, the Artemis program has strong bipartisan political support.
Officials in 2012 estimated that the SLS rocket would cost $6 billion to develop, launch in 2017 and cost $500 million per launch. But this rocket just launched now, has cost more than 20 billion dollars to develop, and each launch price tag has increased to 4.1 billion dollars.
NASA’s Inspector General, NASA’s internal audit unit, earlier this year said Artemis is not the “sustainable” lunar program as agency officials say. The watchdog found more than $40 billion has been spent on the program, and NASA expects to spend $93 billion on the effort through 2025 — when the first landing is planned.
But even that 2025 date is in doubt, according to NASA’s Inspector General, who said that the developed technologies needed to land on the lunar surface are unlikely to be ready before 2026 at the earliest.
NASA’s Artemis plan is also based on the success of another monster rocket: SpaceX’s spacecraft. Last year, the agency awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to develop a moon-specific version of the rocket to serve the crew of the Moon landing for the Artemis mission. III.
SpaceX began testing its Starship spacecraft in earnest in 2019, but that The rocket has not reached orbit yet.
A wide range of aerospace contractors across the US support NASA’s Artemis I hardware, infrastructure, and software – Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Jacobs lead the effort. According to NASA, the Artemis program supports about 70,000 jobs across the country.
Several NASA centers are also participating, in addition to Kennedy as launch sites – including DC headquarters, Marshall in Alabama, Stennis in Mississippi, Ames in California and Langley in Virginia.
In the event that technical or weather problems delay the August 29 launch attempt, NASA will reserve launch dates scheduled for September 2 and September 5.
Here’s what you should know about the launch:
Missile: SLS
NASA’s SLS lunar supergiant rocket led by the Orion spacecraft rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on the way to launch complex 39B for a launch rehearsal on May 17. March 2022 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Paul Hennessy | Anadolu Agency | beautiful pictures
Standing as tall as a skyscraper at 322 feet, the SLS rocket is a complex vehicle built on technologies used and improved from NASA’s Space Shuttle and Apollo programs.
Fully fueled, the SLS weighs 5.7 million pounds and generates up to 8.8 million pounds of thrust — 15 percent more than the Saturn V rocket of the last century. The SLS uses four liquid-fueled RS-25 engines, which have flown on the Space Shuttle before being refurbished and upgraded, as well as a pair of solid boosters.
The core stage of the SLS gets its orange color from the thermal protection system that covers it, which is a spray foam insulation. For the first three Artemis missions, NASA is using a variant of SLS called Block 1. For later missions, NASA plans to deploy an even more powerful variant, called Block 1. is Block 1B.
Capsules: Orion
NASA’s Orion spacecraft
Source: NASA
NASA’s Orion capsule can carry four astronauts on missions lasting up to 21 days without docking with another spacecraft. At its core is the crew module, designed to endure the harsh conditions of deep space flight.
After launch, Orion was fueled and propelled by the European Service Module, built by the European Space Agency and contractor Airbus.
For Artemis I, there will be three dummies inside the Orion capsule to collect sensor data about what the astronauts will experience during their trip to and from the moon. Returning to Earth will be especially important, as Orion will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at about 25,000 miles per hour. A heat shield protects Orion’s exterior and a set of parachutes will slow it down when it lands in the ocean
Mission around the moon
NASA’s Artemis I Lunar Rocket sits at Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 15, 2022.
Eva Marie Uzcategui | AFP | beautiful pictures
Artemis I will travel about 1.3 million miles over the course of 42 days, going through several stages. Once separated from the SLS, the capsule will deploy the solar arrays and begin a multi-day journey to the moon – departing from Earth’s orbit in a so-called “trans-moon injection”.
NASA plans to fly Orion nearly 60 miles above the lunar surface, before moving into a wide orbit around the moon. To return, Orion will use the moon’s gravity to assist it in establishing an orbit back to Earth’s orbit.
Orion is expected to crash into the Pacific Ocean – off the coast of San Diego, California – where a team of NASA and Department of Defense personnel will recover the ship.
In addition to the dummies on board the Orion, Artemis I also carried a number of payloads such as cube satellites, technology demonstrations and scientific investigations.
