it's been almost 50 years since humans
have left earth's orbit the last time we
were on the moon was in 1972 when the
last apollo mission apollo 17 returned
back after 12 days the future apollo
missions were then canceled and we never
went back until recently in 2019 the
trump administration announced plans to
go back to the moon by 2024.
nasa now plans to place astronauts back
on the moon via their artemis program
but how exactly is it going to work
what are the various programs involved
with the artemis program
in this video we are going to talk about
all that and more
[Music]
after the apollo missions were cancelled
there was a long drought humans did go
to space but never left its orbit
nasa has been trying to change that
since 2004 when president george w bush
announced the vision for space
exploration
an initiative to send people back to the
moon and eventually land on mars
since then nasa's deep space efforts
have had a number of names constellation
2004 to 2010 targeted lunar surface and
mars journey to mars 2015 to 2018
targeted cis lunar space asteroid and
mars and moon to mars 2018 to present
targeting lunar surface in mars
nasa's artemis program was developed
under the administration of president
donald trump and continues under
president joe biden
the first clear reference to a lunar
mandate came in trump's space policy
directive on december 1st 2017 which
instructed nasa to focus on lunar
missions then in march 2019 vice
president mike pence citing a space race
with russia and china sent nasa an
ambitious deadline to have humans land
near the south pole of the moon by 2024
at least four years ahead of schedule by
the agency at the time
the 2024 closing date became met with a
few complaints and issues nearly
immediately with questions bobbing up
from inside nasa congress and different
establishments approximately how the
organization might put together new
factors inclusive of a rocket a space
suit and a human landing system
appropriately in time
the nasa administrator at the time jim
brittenstein was adamant safety would be
respected meanwhile congress did not
allocate as much money for elements of
artemis as the trump administration had
requested by august of 2021 delays to
spacesuit development made a 2024
deadline not feasible nasa's inspector
general found
with its current artemis program nasa
plans to send astronauts to the south
pole by 2024 and ultimately establish a
permanent presence on the moon
in the artemis program the first woman
and the first person of color will land
on the moon along with the first
international astronauts to participate
on the moon
the infrastructure for the program is
huge from an outpost on a space station
to spacesuits and from takeoff and
landing equipment to commercial payloads
the artemis program is run primarily by
nasa and american commercial space
companies in collaboration with the
european space agency and the space
agencies of several other nations
other countries have been invited to
join the program by signing the current
artemis agreement which is open for
signature since october 2020
the artemis program is designed to land
humans on the moon quickly by 2024 and
then focus on mars as a long-term
mission
the moon will be a good base if we plan
to travel and live on mars
elon musk the ceo of spacex often says
that we should have had a moon base by
now
the moon will be our first experience on
living and carrying out experiments on a
celestial body outside earth
the short-term preliminary plan is to
use both commercial rockets such as
nasa's space launch system the orion
crew capsule and a lunar landing system
a small space station in lunar orbit
called the gateway would serve for
future surface missions
but how will these different systems
work and coordinate to make the artemis
vision of landing humans safely back to
the moon a reality
let's take a look at all of them one by
one
space launch system nasa's space launch
system is nasa's heavy lift rocket
designed to carry people and cargo into
the solar system
it was first announced in september 2011
under the administration of president
barack obama when nasa was targeting
flexible targets like mars and a
near-earth asteroid for future human
missions
after overcoming development delays and
challenges in late 2020 and early 2021
sls is scheduled to make its maiden
flight artemis 1 in december of 2021
when it will launch an orion spacecraft
in a loop around the moon
it is a massive rocket based on space
shuttle base technology
it's essentially a larger version of the
shuttle stack that swaps the winged
orbiter for cargo or for the orion crew
capsule on top
the center stage of the vehicle is a
stretched external shuttle fuel tank
which is powered by four space shuttle
main engines
rs-25 during the shuttle program these
engines were refurbished and reused for
sls they will be ditched in the ocean
a pair of solid fuel rockets from the
five-segment space shuttle are used to
support the core phase in the initial
phase of flight sls will be available in
various configurations with the lunar
astronaut launch version expected to be
98 meters high
it will be developed in three main
phases with different capacities mainly
the upper phases block 1 block 1b and
block 2.
the core phase of all versions will be
built by boeing which received an
initial contract of 2.8 billion in 2014.
the orion spacecraft
the history of the development of the
orion spacecraft dates back to long
before artemis
nasa contracted lockheed martin to build
the teardrop shaped vehicle in 2006
under a contract valued at up to 8.15
billion at the time
orion was originally developed for the
constellation program of the
administration of president george w
bush to get people to the moon in mars
the program was discontinued in 2010
under obama orion was revived in 2011
with a modified system design and nasa
said that the design could be adapted
for the newer exploration vision for
flexible targets
later orion was retained as the
spaceship of choice for artemis
orion is a crew vehicle that can support
up to four astronauts on space travel
similar in concept but with a larger
interior space than apollo capsules
unlike capsules which were designed
solely for low earth orbit transport
orion's heat shield can withstand the
high speed re-entry required when
returning from space the orion
spacecraft consists of three main
components a pressurized crew capsule a
service module and a launch abort tower
that is nominally dropped on the rise
orion has successfully completed one
flight test to date a high earth orbit
mission called exploration flight test 1
eft 1 on december 5th 2014.
delays in sls development have postponed
unexpected second flight for the capsule
several times since 2017 on the next
expected flight artemis won by the end
of 2021 orion is expected to fly around
the moon with experiments cubesats and
human test items to study the stresses
and strains of space travel in future
astronauts orion is five meters in
diameter and can carry four astronauts
nasa says
the lunar gateway
the gateway space station is the latest
in a long evolution of space station and
basic space concepts for astronauts
one of nasa's earliest mentions of a
gateway to deep space orbiting the moon
was in 2017 and the facility was
included in artemis's early programming
plans as a way station for astronauts
targeting the lunar surface
in 2020 gateway was pulled from the
critical path of the first moon landing
in 2024 but it remains one of nasa's
planned successors to the international
space station program
gateway like iss will be an
international association but unlike iss
gateway will not have permanent staff
currently the gateway does not have to
be operational for the first moon
landing in 2024
nasa is asking commercial companies to
provide gateway cargo transportation
services similar to what the
international space station does
some of the planned elements of gateway
include a power and propulsion module
built by maxar a residential and
logistics outpost built by northrop
grumman the european refueling
infrastructure and telecommunications
systems or esprit built by thales
allenia the international room module
built by thales alenia and a robotic arm
built by mda called canadarm3 spacex's
falcon heavy rocket will deliver the
first two segments nasa announced in
early 2021 the gateway design is still
under development and nasa could add
more elements
shackleton crater surface base
in 2012 scientists studying the moon's
south pole shackleton crater in
unprecedented detail identified abundant
supplies of frozen water on the lunar
surface of the region
since then observations by nasa's lunar
reconnaissance orbiter and other
spacecraft have confirmed that there is
water ice in the region
so-called lunar researchers believe that
such water can be separated into its
hydrogen and oxygen components for
rocket fuel or for supplying air to
astronauts
however the technology to convert water
into fuel is still in the early stages
of development
one of the cube sats which will fly
around the moon with nasa's sls will
test a water electrolysis propulsion
system in space in 2020 nasa revealed
initial plans for its artemis base camp
near shackleton crater as the facility
evolves and grows supplies of water
garbage disposal communications landing
vehicles and protection of astronauts
from radiation will be needed nasa set
the base will also include two mobility
systems a lunar all-terrain vehicle for
the movement of astronauts on the
surface and a habitable mobility
platform that could support trips from
the base for up to 45 days the facility
can also allow for moon dust related
experiments in situ resource utilization
or a far side radio telescope
artemis space suits well spacesuits are
important aspects that you cannot ignore
at all
nasa last used a spacesuit on the lunar
surface in 1972
its current generation of spacesuits for
floating spacewalks the extra vehicular
mobility unit was introduced in 1981 but
is not suitable for the conditions on
the moon
in search of improved options nasa
unveiled two prototype spacesuits for
artemis in 2019
the first is the exploration
extravehicular mobility unit x emu
a red white and blue suit designed to be
worn on expeditions to the lunar surface
the second is the orion crew survival
system a bright orange pressure suit
worn by astronauts in the orion capsule
when they launch into space and return
to earth
starting in october 2020 nasa planned to
produce five xemu suits in the first
batch one for design review one for
qualification testing one for
international space station in orbit
testing and two for the first landing
mission artemis iii
nasa also requested information on
possible commercial involvement in the
development of spacesuits in april 2021
but in august 2021 the nasa inspector
general's office cited a 20-month delay
in the development of the x-cmu which
caused the 2024 moon deadline for
implementing on the moon not feasible
missions
nasa plans to deploy landers rovers
payloads and other privately developed
commercial products to the moon as part
of its commercial lunar payload services
clps program
clps was first proposed in april 2018
following the retirement of the resource
prospector rover and nasa said it plans
to focus on a series of progressive
robotic missions to the moon
the agency published a draft call for
proposals in april 2018 and the first
group of u.s companies was selected in
november 2018. as of august 2021 it's
unclear which clps mission will carry
out the first launches scheduled for
2020.
the astrobiotics peregrine mission one
pm1 plans to send more than two dozen
payloads to the moon in 2022 according
to space news
intuitive machines will also deliver
nasa's polar resources ice mining
experiment prime one in 2022 nasa is
asking commercial companies to build
lunar landing systems that will
eventually dock with the gateway
a visiting orion team boarded the lander
brought it to the surface and returned
it in an ascending module or the entire
vehicle the first landers could only
surface briefly while future vehicles
could accommodate crews during the
moonlit night nasa's artemis program is
going to be an important step in the
history of mankind and its vision for
becoming an interplanetary species
so what do you think are going to be the
challenges for the artemis mission
let us know what you think in the
comment section below and don't forget
to like the video and subscribe to the
channel it encourages us to keep on
making high quality content for you