Nearly 50 years after Apollo’s last lunar adventures, NASA has created a program that promises to land humans on unexplored lunar regions, and eventually on Mars — and it all begins with Artemis I.
It is no coincidence that Artemis is named after the twin sister of Apollo from Greek mythology. Artemis will start where the famous Apollo program left off in 1972 by sending manned missions to the Moon, but in a new way.
The goals of the Artemis program include landing diverse crews of astronauts on the Moon and exploring the mysterious lunar south pole for the first time. The ambitious effort also aims to establish a sustainable presence on the Moon and create reusable systems that could enable humans to explore Mars and possibly beyond.
But none of this is possible without first making one big leap. When Artemis I launches on August 29, the unmanned mission will test every new component that will make future deep space exploration possible before humans make the trip in 2024 and 2025 aboard Artemis II and Artemis III, respectively.
The mission team expects to launch the New Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft between 8:33 a.m. and 10:33 a.m. ET on August 29 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with backup launch windows on September 2 and September 5.
After launching from Earth, I will go Artemis on a 42-day mission. During the flight, the Orion spacecraft will travel 40,000 miles (64,000 km) behind the moon — 30,000 miles (48,000 km) farther than the record set during Apollo 13. This trajectory simulates the flight the Artemis 2 crew will take in 2024.
This would be the farthest any spacecraft designed for humans has flown, according to NASA officials.
Historic launch pad 39B is no stranger to monster rockets, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson noted at a press conference earlier in August. It was once home to the Saturn 5 rocket, which carried the Apollo missions to the Moon and blasted off with a thrust of 7.6 million pounds. The SLS missile will hit the pillow with a thrust of 8.8 million pounds.
“As we embark on Artemis’ first test flight, we are reminded of this agency’s written past, but our eyes are not focused on the immediate future but there,” Nelson said.
“It’s a future where NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the moon. And in these increasingly complex missions, astronauts will live and work in deep space and we will advance science and technology to send the first humans to Mars.”
A new generation of exploration
Returning to the Moon, with an eye toward an eventual trip to Mars, requires a new one.
Lessons from the Apollo and shuttle programs taught the design of the Space Launch System rocket, the world’s most powerful rocket. The massive moon rocket will propel the spacecraft nearly 1,000 times farther from the International Space Station’s location in low Earth orbit. The SLS Orion rocket will boost at 22,600 mph (36,370 kph) to escape Earth’s gravity and reach the Moon.
“It’s the only rocket capable of sending Orion, its crew, and supplies into deep space in a single launch,” said John Honeycutt, Space Launch System Program Manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
On top of the rocket is the Orion spacecraft, designed to transport a crew through deep space and return astronauts safely to Earth.
The spacecraft contains a crew module, a service module and a launch abort system that has the ability to transport the spacecraft and its crew to safety during any emergency that may arise during launch or ascent. Orion’s path through space will test the craft’s ability to maintain communication with Earth outside the Moon and protect its crew from radiation.
Below Orion is the European Service Unit.
“It’s the powerhouse side of the craft as it contains the essential propulsion, energy, and life support resources we need for Artemis I,” said Howard Hu, Orion program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Hu said the Orion spacecraft has hardware and software that will allow future crews to gain insight into what happens to their car when they are thousands of miles away from home.
One of the biggest experiments on Orion may be to test the heat shield, the largest ever built.
When the spacecraft returns to Earth in October, Nelson said, it will encounter temperatures half the temperature of the Sun’s surface and strike the top of Earth’s atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour (40,200 kilometers per hour) — 32 times the speed of sound. .
“Orion will come home faster and hotter than any spacecraft before at Mach 32,” Nelson said. “On the space shuttle, we were at Mach 25, which is about 17,500 miles per hour (28,160 kilometers per hour).” (Mach 1 is the speed of sound).
The heat shield has been tested on Earth, but returning from space is the only real test that simulations can’t completely replicate.
“The return would be great for demonstrating our ability to heat shield, make sure the spacecraft comes home safely, and of course in future missions to protect the crew,” Hu said.
The final test
All of Artemis’ inaugural voyage objectives will show the abilities needed when Orion transports humans into deep space. The list includes an overall safe flight, SLS rocket performance, heat shield testing, and recovery of the spacecraft once it plunges into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.
Orion will not carry a crew on this initial mission, but it will be filled with data from the flight – sensors including attached to some very necessary passengers. Three models will ride aboard the Artemis I to simulate what humans might encounter, and data from their sensors will reveal how much vibration they’ve been exposed to, as well as radiation exposure and the usefulness of flight suits and radiation jackets.
Since Artemis I is a test flight, the Artemis team is prepared to take more risks, said Mike Sarafin, NASA’s Artemis I mission manager. Taking those risks now, he said, can eliminate problems when the actual crew is on board.
But more than all the data and science the mission team will gain is the idea of resuming human exploration of space by taking a huge step forward from Apollo to Artemis.
“Artemis I showed that we can do big things that unite people, things that benefit humanity — things like Apollo that inspire the world,” Nelson said. “And for all of us who stare at the moon, we dream of the day humanity returns to the moon’s surface: O people, here we are, we shall return and that journey, our journey, begins with the first Artemis.”