NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, scheduled to take off on Monday, is expected to last a total of 42 days.
The trip to the Moon, without an astronaut on board, is meticulously choreographed, and should make it possible to collect spectacular images as well as valuable scientific data.
take off
NASA’s new giant rocket, SLS, will make its maiden flight from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Its four RS-25 engines, and two white boosters on each side, will produce 39 meganewtons of thrust – 15% more than the Apollo program’s Saturn V rocket.
After two minutes, the thrusters will fall back into the Atlantic Ocean. After eight minutes, the main stage (orange in color) will detach in turn.
Only the Orion spacecraft will remain, whose solar panels will then be deployed, attached to the upper stage of the rocket (ICPS). After circling the Earth, the latter will provide the final push that will place Orion on the Moon’s trajectory, approximately 1 hour 30 minutes after takeoff – before being released as well.
The path
The ship will then only consist of the capsule where the astronauts will be in the future, powered by a service module built by the European Space Agency (ESA).
It will take several days to reach the Moon, which it will approach on arrival at only 100 km. “It’s going to be spectacular, we’ll be holding our breath,” said mission flight director Rick LaBrode.
The capsule will then be placed in a distant orbit, where it will complete one and a half revolutions of the Moon in just over two weeks.
It will go up to 64,000 km behind the Moon – a record for a habitable capsule.
Then after passing by the Moon again to take advantage of its gravitational assistance, it will begin its return journey.
Ditching
The number 1 objective of the mission is to test the capsule’s heat shield, the largest ever built (5 m in diameter). On its return to the Earth’s atmosphere, it will have to withstand a speed of 40,000 km/h and a temperature of 2,800°C.
The spacecraft will be slowed down to 480 km/h by the atmosphere, then 32 km/h by a series of parachutes, until it lands off the Californian city of San Diego.
Divers will attach cables to it to tow it in a few hours to the interior of a US Navy ship.
The passengers
The capsule will carry a dummy called Moonikin Campos, installed in the commander’s seat and dressed in the new NASA suit. It will record the acceleration and the vibrations undergone.
Also on board: two busts of women, named Helga and Zohar, and made of materials imitating bones or even human organs. One will be wearing a radiation jacket, the other will not.
Sensors will make it possible to evaluate the levels of radiation received, in particular in deep space, where they are much more important.
What will we see?
A large number of on-board cameras will make it possible to follow the entire journey, for example from the point of view of a passenger in the capsule.
Cameras at the end of the solar panels will take selfies of the craft with the Moon and Earth in the background.
Embedded experiences
Reality could approach science fiction with an experiment called Callisto, and inspired by the Star Trek ship’s computer, capable of exchanging with the crew.
It is an improved version of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, which will be asked from the control center to adjust the light in the capsule, or to read flight data. The idea is to make life easier for astronauts in the future.
In addition, a set of ten CubeSats, shoebox-sized microsatellites, will be deployed by the rocket’s upper stage.
The experiments are multiple: study of an asteroid, the effect of radiation on living organisms, search for water on the Moon…
These projects, carried out independently by international companies or researchers, take advantage of the rare opportunity of a launch into deep space.
AFP