NASA is now laying concrete plans to set its foot on the Moon again, and it has the SLS
rocket to do so.
They have been making plans to take this bold step, but what has been holding them are the
several engineering challenges that were suddenly discovered during the wet dress rehearsal.
The space company made history in 1969 when Apollo 11 sent humans to the Moon.
It hopes to do the same in 2025 by sending Artemis 3, launching the first woman and first
person of color to the Moon.
It will use a giant, under-development rocket known as the Space Launch System SLS.
The SLS has a complicated design, you can be right to say that its design are more complicated
than SpaceX starship, so anytime NASA is set to do the needful of sending it to orbit,
the rocket will be faced with critical component malfunctioning, and this has been what was
keeping the sleeping dog in the bed.
Right now, NASA is ready to get things fixed, and the SLS rocket is up and running.
Today, we'll discuss why NASA thinks the Starship rocket may not be lifted up from the ground
to space unless the SLS rocket is ready to take off.
Stay tuned to learn about the various tests and fault NASA has fixed on the SLS rocket
to prepare it for its orbital journey.
On June 14th, 2022, a full Moon was seen from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center
in Florida, which NASA operates.
On top of the mobile launcher, the Artemis 1 Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion
spacecraft were positioned for a wet dress rehearsal.
The purpose of this rehearsal was to practice the timeframes and procedures for the launch.
Before sending crews to the Moon, the SLS and the Orion spacecraft will be put through
their various tests, the initial tests may have ended up with a couple of challenges,
but NASA is ready to stay put and succeed.
With the help of Artemis, NASA will prepare the groundwork for establishing a permanent
base on the Moon and use the Moon as a stepping stone to journey to Mars, which is also SpaceX's
goal.
The wet dress rehearsal for Artemis 1 was closed at 7:37 p.m. on June 20th, 2022, at
the T-29 second mark in the countdown.
With this test, the crew successfully loaded all propellant tanks on the SLS rocket for
the first time.
It was also the first time Nasa SLS engineers would enter the terminal launch countdown.
Launch controllers discovered a hydrogen leak around the fast disconnect that links an umbilical
from the tail service mast on the mobile launcher to the rocket's core stage.
At the same time, fuel was being put into the rocket as part of the test activities.
The crew tried to rectify the leak by first heating the fast disconnect and then cooling
it back down to form a seal, but their efforts were unsuccessful, and the leak persisted.
The launch controllers or you can also call them - launch test engineers then devised
a plan to mask the data associated with the leak, which, in the event of a real launch
day scenario, would cause a hold to be placed on the ground launch sequencer, also known
as the launch computer.
This would allow the launch engineers to get as far into the countdown as possible.
The time necessary to develop the strategy prompted a long pause during the launch activities
associated with the countdown; nevertheless, they were allowed to resume with the terminal
count.
During the terminal count, the teams carried out many essential procedures that needed
to be finished before the launch.
One of these was the transfer of control from the ground launch sequencer to the automated
launch sequencer controlled by the rocket's flight software.
This was an important step that the team wanted to complete.
The teams accomplished several major goals while working inside the Vehicle Assembly
Building (VAB).
These goals included determining the source of the leak in the liquid hydrogen system
at the tail service mast umbilical, replacing the check valve and support hardware for the
interim cryogenic propulsion stage gaseous helium system, and modifying the ICPS umbilical
purge boots.
All these were much for a launch that is supposed to start in less than four hours.
During cryogenic operations, the extra visibility offered by hazardous gas detectors installed
above the upper stage enables better identification of any possible leaks.
In order to get the crew module and launch abort system ready for rollout, the access
points must be closed.
Engineers put rain gutters on the crew access portion of the spacecraft to prevent moisture
from entering the crew module while the spacecraft and rocket are still at the launch pad.
The teams have begun preparing the rollout arrangement of the service platforms surrounding
the Moon rocket and spacecraft in the VAB in preparation for the Moon rocket and spacecraft's
return to the launch pad.
Of course, the Artemis 1 launch will be history in the making.
NASA's deep space exploration systems will be tested for the first time at Kennedy Space
Center.
The Orion spacecraft will be launched on top of the massive SLS rocket as the first in
a series of missions aimed at human deep space exploration.
This uncrewed test mission will show NASA's potential to sustain human life on the Moon
and beyond.
The SLS spacecraft is expected to go hundreds of kilometers beyond the Moon during this
three-week journey.
Orion, the first human-grade deep-space vehicle, will spend more time in space and return to
earth faster than any previous spacecraft.
Nasa astronauts think that as large and daring as the SLS is, it pales compared to what Starship
could do.
"Starship has the potential to reshape the solar system in ways beyond our understanding
and completely change the game, according to Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute
in Texas, who leads NASA's New Horizons project, which passed by Pluto in 2015.
This alone makes what NASA thinks about the starship to be void.
But is it really the truth that SpaceX won't be able to reach orbit until the SLS is launched
into space from the ground?
Let's work out the flaws in this line of thinking;
The bitter truth be told is that it depends highly on how SpaceX decides to proceed with
the design of the Starship.
It was recently confirmed that the SLS would not take to the skies until 2022, and now
we are in 2022, NASA should start proving its capabilities to us.
However, despite the immense work done on the SLS, as well as the design concepts of
Boeing and other space companies, which are basically laid on a belief that says; "don't
launch until you know it will work," we can presume that the SLS will reach orbit on its
first launch.
On the other hand, Starship is following SpaceX's design and testing concept of "blow it up
until it stopped getting burnt."
This might lead to faster development, with the first Superheavy booster flying before
the end of the year.
It would, however, be up to SpaceX to determine what to do with it.
They could do a series of flights, like in the case of the Starship, which was propelled
up to 10 or 20 kilometers and let it fall before landing.
This appears to be the greatest choice because it would allow them to test more systems and
increase their chances of reusing the first boosters.
At the same time, they may just say, "screw it.
"Let's stack a Starship on top of a Superheavy, and launch it into space, to see what happens."
They could have a Starship in orbit by the end of the year if they follow this principle,
but don't expect the mission to be successful since it was done out of no strategy, and
no concrete plan.
If Starship enters orbit this year, it will very likely do nothing.
It'd just be a gigantic steel tube in orbit, with no ability to reenter the atmosphere
because the heat shields haven't been tested yet.
There is one issue with sending the Starship into orbit this year.
The Raptor engines are still rather scarce.
SpaceX is making them as quickly as possible, but there are not enough for the number of
super heavies and starships currently on ground.
Hence, they must decide whether they would rather risk losing 36 Raptor engines just
to put a Starship in a bid to be the first big guys in space and rub it in the face of
NASA's SLS as a challenge, or whether they would rather risk losing the propellants just
to prove to NASA that they know their business more than any other space companies in the
world.
Because there are an unlimited number of options for what they might do with 36 Raptor engines
if they only continued with the testing that is now being conducted by SpaceX, it would
be a waste to use all of the 36 raptor engines for an orbital mission, which wouldn't accomplish
anything in any way for now.
Which space rocket would you love to see launched in space first?
Is it the SLS rocket or SpaceX starship?
SpaceX is getting ready to win this race and has Shown Their 33 Engines Starship Booster
Monster for the First Time Ever, just click on the video to know more.