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If you’re like me, you’ve probably spent your life dreaming of a day when humans would
travel to distant planets and build life-supporting outposts across the solar system.
Well, we’re not there yet, but the Artemis program may be the start of this bold endeavour.
Fittingly named after Apollo’s sister, the Greek Goddess of the Moon, the Artemis Program
is a spiritual sibling of the Apollo Program, which landed the first astronauts on the Moon.
Not only does NASA plan to send human crewmembers back to the Moon for the first time since
1972, but its additional objectives seem like straight up science fiction.
They include the construction of a permanent lunar base and paving the way for the first
crewed interplanetary mission: Mars!
But to get there, NASA will first need to take its new technology for an uncrewed test
drive and do further research into the effects of solar radiation on travellers.
With so much riding on one mission, NASA will need everything to go perfectly, which is
why they pushed back the launch date from 2017 to 2018, then 2019… and, finally, 2022.
Now, after years of intense planning, the long-awaited moment has arrived.
Is this the dawn of a new age of space exploration?
The answer will depend on the success of Artemis 1.
I’m Alex McColgan, and you are watching Astrum.
Join me today as we count down the history-making launch of Artemis 1, learn about NASA’s
ambitious goals for the Artemis Program, and take a look under the hood of the Orion: the
most advanced space shuttle ever built.
On Monday, August 29, 2022, Artemis 1 will launch from Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space
Center.
If all goes as planned, the day will see two firsts.
It will be the first launch of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, a super-heavy vehicle
that will propel the Orion capsule into space, and the first flight of Orion itself, the
only spacecraft currently capable of human deep space flight.
While Artemis 1 will be an uncrewed mission, the Orion shuttle can support a crew of up
to six humans.
It is equipped with solar panels, a glass cockpit, an automated docking system, a life
support system, and a launch abort system capable of ejecting the crew module in case
a catastrophic failure occurs during ascent.
The shuttle’s primary propulsion comes from a single AJ10 engine, while its secondary
propulsion uses eight R-4D-11 engines as thrusters.
In total, the Artemis 1 mission will last 25 days, travelling beyond the Moon and back,
while spending six of those days in a distant retrograde orbit (meaning it will orbit the
Moon opposite to the direction that the Moon orbits Earth).
In addition to testing NASA’s latest equipment, Artemis 1 will have a secondary payload of
10 CubeSats, which contain small satellites that will conduct some nifty independent testing.
These include an orbiter designed to search for lunar ice and a solar sail-powered spacecraft
capable of encountering near-Earth Asteroids.
Orion will be stacked on the Space Launch System – a towering rocket standing 111
meters tall.
At blastoff, it will produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust, making it the most powerful rocket
ever built.
To create enough force to send this heavy rocket past Earth’s gravitational pull,
it will get power in several stages.
At blastoff, the core stage and two solid rocket boosters will fire up.
Within minutes, the core stage, which houses four RS-25 engines, will burn through nearly
3 million litres of liquid propellant, while each booster will also burn through 900,000
kilograms of solid fuel.
This does sound like a lot, but I don’t think you can appreciate this in real terms
without seeing it in action.
So, purely for your visual enjoyment, here is a close-up of the engines being tested.
Absolutely remarkable power.
Once the core and boosters run out, the rocket will drop them, shedding excess weight.
At this point, the Space Launch System will have reached Earth’s low orbit, but the
shuttle will still need additional power in order to escape Earth’s gravity.
To do this, the SLS will perform a big move, or trans-lunar injection.
The upper part of the rocket, called the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, will then fire
up and drop away, accelerating the Orion shuttle to nearly 40,000 kilometres per hour, fast
enough to send it on a trajectory to the Moon.
After the ICPS separates from Orion, it will drop its payload of 10 small satellites to
do their own information-gathering missions, while Orion will cruise into lunar space.
There, Orion will fire up its manoeuvring engines.
These will send the shuttle around the dark side of the moon before its boosters send
it on a trajectory back to Earth.
At this point, Orion will separate from its service module and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere
before splashing down with the help of parachutes.
While other shuttles have used similar technologies in the past, SLS is unique in that it can
carry extremely heavy payloads while sending human crews much farther than they have ever
travelled.
This extra power will be critical for running complex and heavy payload missions – and
hopefully end with NASA’s horizon goal of a crewed mission to Mars.
Unlike future Artemis missions, Artemis 1 will be uncrewed.
Well… uncrewed by humans.
But the shuttle will have several “passengers.”
One will be Captain Moonikin Campos, a mannequin equipped with radiation sensors and acceleration
measurement instruments, as well as two phantoms shaped like female torsos.
Keeping them company will be a plush Snoopy and Shaun the Sheep.
While the latter two are presumably just coming along for the ride, Captain Campos and the
phantoms will have important jobs to do.
Captain Campos will be test-wearing the same Orion Crew Survival System suit that astronauts
on future missions will wear during launch and re-entry, as well as the Matroshka AstroRad
Radiation Experiment, or MARE, which collects data on solar radiation.
The female phantoms, meanwhile, contain synthetic organs that mimic hard and soft tissue, integrated
with hundreds of radiation detectors.
One phantom will wear an AstroRad radiation vest and the other will fly unprotected as
a control.
NASA plans to send both men and women on future Artemis missions, so it’s important to gather
information on various health risks specific to both male and female biology.
NASA have sent men to the Moon before, but never a woman.
This program will take future crews outside of Earth’s protective magnetic field, where
they will be fully exposed to harsh solar and cosmic radiation.
NASA hopes that the information they collect will be useful for protecting future crewed
missions from that harm.
If Artemis 1 is successful, NASA has big plans for the near future.
Artemis 2, currently scheduled for launch in 2024, will carry four human crewmembers
on a lunar flyby that will extend 16,000 kilometres beyond the moon – farther than anyone has
ever travelled before.
In 2025, Artemis 3 will carry four crewmembers into lunar orbit, two of whom will land on
the Moon’s South Pole for the first time.
This mission will also be the first time a female astronaut will walk on the Moon.
This will be a special occasion, and perhaps will be instrumental in helping future generations
of women gain a love for space and STEM topics.
And 2025 is not that far away - only 3 years to go!
The astronauts that will be on this mission are already training for it as we speak.
But after that, things will get even more exciting.
In 2027, NASA plans to deliver the first module for the Lunar Gateway.
The Gateway will be a permanent space station orbiting the moon, much as the International
Space Station orbits Earth.
It will house docking ports for visiting spacecraft and a habitable outpost called HALO for humans
to live.
A few years further down the line, NASA plans to build the Artemis Base Camp at the Shackleton
Crater on the lunar South Pole.
With access to water ice and mineral resources, it’s the ideal spot for a permanent outpost
that would house up to four crewmembers for month-long stays.
NASA also plans to develop an open-top Lunar Terrain Vehicle, or LTV, which astronauts
will be able to drive over 20 kilometers from base camp on the rough lunar surface.
For longer ground trips, NASA plans to build a pressurized rover, which will allow astronauts
to remain inside without their space suits.
If all this sounds like a fun adventure to you, there’s good news.
Because, as we continue to develop a human and robotic presence on the Moon, it may eventually
become a travel destination open to a wider public.
That’s right: sometime in the future, you or I might be able to visit the Moon.
What would you bring?
NASA is already asking people to share their ideas.
You can share yours on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #NASAMoonKit!
This may make you wonder why there is suddenly this rush to get to the Moon again.
And while NASA would have never stopped going, the real reason is funding from the US government.
And the US is becoming acutely aware of heavy competition in this sector - China’s plans
to also get to the Moon.
It is quickly becoming a race, and the US government does not want to be left behind.
But as I mentioned earlier, the horizon goal of the Artemis Program is not only to establish
a sustainable human presence on the Moon but to provide a proving ground for an eventual
crewed mission to Mars.
In 2029, NASA will roll out Block 2, an even more powerful version of the Space Launch
System fully capable of sending the Orion space shuttle to Mars.
If all goes as planned, NASA hopes to shift its attention to a Mars mission sometime in
the 2030s.
That’s only a decade away!
But to get there, a lot will have to go right, and it all starts with the Artemis 1 mission.
Artemis 1 could be a watershed moment that jumpstarts a golden age of space exploration.
I don’t know about you, but when Artemis 1 blasts off, I’ll be glued to my computer
watching all the latest news and updates.
The time when we travel far beyond the Earth and inhabit other worlds might be closer than
you think.
So, if this is an idea that excites you, you’ll definitely want to stick around, because I’ll
have lots more about Artemis and space colonisation in the future.
Another way to keep on top of the Artemis mission, as well as future news topics, is
Ground News.
Now, Ground News is not just a news app, but it’s the world’s first news comparison
platform.
While you may not see a ton of politics in space news, I think we are all aware of the
different biases that can be included in various news topics.
Ground News allows users to see how breaking news is being covered differently across the
political spectrum.
This is great if you want to read from a variety of schools of thought, and can help you with
critical thinking instead of only hearing an echo chamber.
And what better way to avoid clickbait than from an app designed to find you the best
articles on a topic from thousands of different sources?
So, check your blind spots and get the best from the news today – download or subscribe
to Ground News using the link in the description below.
I highly recommend it.
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