More than 50 years after the Apollo moon landing, NASA is preparing to return there.
The Artemis I mission is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in the US state of Florida during the two-hour window that opens at 8:33 am EST (1233 GMT) on Monday, August 29. The live stream for the launch will begin at 6:30 AM EST (1030 GMT) on YouTube, courtesy of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA.
Artemis I is the first phase of NASA’s new lunar exploration program, the ultimate goal of which is to establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface.
The most powerful NASA rocket ever built will carry the unmanned Orion spacecraft to the Moon at 39,400 km/h (24,500 mph).
If all goes well, astronauts will be able to circle the moon as early as 2024, and by the end of 2025, NASA plans to land two people on the surface of the moon.
The Orion flight is expected to last six weeks from launch in Florida to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. This extra-long mission – twice as long as astronaut flights – is designed to test and test all systems.
It would take almost a week to reach the Moon, which is 386,000 km (240,000 miles) away. After a close flyby of the Moon, the capsule will use the Moon’s gravity to turn around and enter a deep orbit with a range of 61,000 km (38,000 miles). This would place Orion 450,000 km (280,000 miles) from Earth, further than Apollo, which was 400,727 km (249,000 miles) away.
The big test comes at the end of the mission when Orion enters the atmosphere at 40,000 km/h (25,000 mph) on its way to splash down in the Pacific Ocean. The re-entry speed will generate a strong amount of heat, which will test the capsule’s heat shield.
The heat shield uses the same material as the Apollo capsules to withstand an atmospheric reentry temperature of 2,750 degrees Celsius (5,000 Fahrenheit).
But the improved design suggests a faster return for future Martian crews. According to John Logsdon, the goal of this mission is to be the first step towards a sustainable program of human exploration of the Moon, Mars and beyond.
What will Artemis do?
According to NASA, it is “a return to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers.”
Through the Artemis missions, NASA plans to land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon.
In addition to the three test dummies, there are numerous stowaways in flight for deep space exploration.
Ten shoebox-sized satellites called CubeSats inside the rocket will take off as Orion flies towards the moon. They will conduct a series of scientific experiments and technology demonstrations in deep space.
The Orion will carry several pieces of moon rocks collected by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from Apollo 11 in 1969, and a bolt from one of their rocket engines recovered from the sea a decade ago.
Previous missions to the moon
More than 50 years later, Apollo is still considered NASA’s greatest achievement.
Twelve Apollo astronauts walked on the Moon from 1969 to 1972, staying no more than three days. For Artemis, NASA will use a diverse pool of astronauts, which currently has 42, and is extending the time crews will spend on the Moon to at least a week.
Using 1960s technology, it took NASA just eight years to go from launching its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, to landing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon.
In contrast, Artemis, named after the mythological twin sister of Apollo, has already been in development for more than a decade and is estimated to cost $93 billion by 2025.
Since 1958, six countries have made 70 successful and partially successful flights to the Moon. According to the NASA archive, another 41 flights failed.
In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the US and the USSR were the only countries that attempted flights to the moon. Between them, the two Cold War rivals undertook at least 90 missions to the Moon, 40 of which were unsuccessful.
No lunar missions were launched in the 1980s.
In 1990, Japan entered the space race with its Hiten orbiter.
In the 2000s, China, India and the European Space Agency launched their first successful missions to the Moon.