Artemis 1 is ready, finally we are going back to the Moon!
This very hot summer of 2022 has brought us not only sleepless nights
but also a beautiful and now unexpected piece of news:
at the end of August, we are off to the Moon! When hopes seemed slim by then,
the “Artemis I” mission finally got the final green light from NASA.
The Artemis program is essentially the first, real project that aims to return humans
to lunar soil and, more importantly, to create a sustainable and lasting human presence there.
This all sounds almost like science fiction, but in reality, it is more than doable;
and the program, despite the delays and issues that were chilling enthusiasm,
seems to have made up a lot of ground. Artemis is also the first project to involve
every possible aerospace entity, including private and commercial ones. All of this with
the aim of not only "conquering" the Moon for good, but paving the way toward Mars missions.
Getting to Mars, you know, is however a much more complicated task than returning
to our natural satellite; the reconquest of the Moon will therefore also be a wonderful way to
train for the long journey to the red planet; a journey that by the way will be accomplished
through the same rocket vectors that at this time are heating the engines for the Moon.
Small steps, which perhaps, as happened in the past for Apollo,
will become "gigantic leaps for humanity", and for the moment we must make ourselves sufficient.
The launch that will mark the beginning of this new and incredible adventure is expected in a
few days, but the roadmap is long and full of steps, and it is worth analyzing it more closely
By the time the Space Launch System lifts off from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B,
exactly 18150 days will have passed since Dec. 19, 1972, which saw the return
to Earth of Apollo 17, the sixth and final mission to explore the lunar soil.
At that time we naively thought that, having taken the first step, we would soon return to the Moon,
and that we would soon colonize it. Exactly 50 years have passed ... and
since then not only have we never touched the Moon, we have never even gone as far
as its orbit. Except with automated probes. Well, in a few days, after years of troubles,
delays, and tribulations of all kinds, Artemis I, the first mission of the three that by 2025 will
bring more men and women to step on the regolith of our satellite once again, will finally launch.
The exact day should be next August 29, or a little later, but by now we are certain that
we are in the home stretch: the mission that seems destined to open the door to human exploration of
the Solar System will finally begin shortly. In addition to being the first mission of
the Artemis program, it will also be the first flight for both the Orion capsule
and the Space Launch System heavy launch vehicle. Bad choice, incidentally, to name
the carrier rocket that will take us back to the Moon in such an anonymous way! Do you agree?
The journey to the moon is surely the most extreme journey ever undertaken by a human being.
And it is incredible to think how the astronauts of the Apollo generation managed to make it
aboard spacecraft whose computers had the computing capacity of an old cell phone
Yet, despite the technological limitations of the time, those men managed to prove the feasibility
of a journey many thought impossible. Today, more than fifty years later,
with Artemis I we are again preparing to make this incredible crossing,
with an initial launch that will serve primarily to demonstrate the launcher's ability to get
to and from the Moon safely, even dropping small CubeSats for scientific purposes into lunar orbit.
It will also be crucial to test the behavior of the new Orion Command Module,
one of the flagships of this program, which promises great autonomy and structural integrity
even in emergencies, being able to ensure the survival of its passengers (it is designed to
carry four astronauts at a time) in critical situations, all the way to a safe landing.
In contrast, the Service Module, which will provide propulsion, electrical power, temperature
control, and life support to the crew module, was developed by the European Space Agency.
Precisely because of the need to test these assets again, there will be no astronauts aboard Artemis
1. As a result, life support, displays, and control instrumentation have been removed
from the capsule. In its place are sensors and scientific instruments capable of detecting
every single parameter inside the capsule, such as radiation levels, pressures,
and temperatures. On board, however, there will be dummies, on which sensors are placed to monitor
all the radiation levels they will experience. The name chosen for the main mannequin "Commander
Moonikin Campos" goes to pay homage to the famous engineer of the Apollo 13 mission, the
one who played a key role in bringing astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise safely
back to Earth after an explosion in the service module not only thwarted the lunar landing but
also put a strain on the simple re-entry. Moonikin Campos will wear the same spacesuit
that the astronauts will use and will be equipped with an array of sensors that can measure several
useful parameters, such as acceleration values during various phases of the journey,
and vibrations to which crew members will be subjected, and radiation levels.
Campos will not be alone; joining him will be Zolgar and Helga, two human torsos
similar to those normally used for ballistic trauma simulations.
"Hey, guys, just a moment before we continue... BE sure to join the Insane Curiosity Channel...
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The mission is expected to last about a month and a half,
but the exact number of days will depend on the actual launch date; like this:
Launch on August 29
The launch window of two hours starts at 12:33 UT (Greenwich Mean Time).
Mission duration: 42 days. Orion Splashdown: October 10.
Launch on September 2. Two-hour launch window starting at 16:48 UT.
Mission duration: 39 days. Orion Splashdown: October. 11.
Launch on September 5. A 90-minute launch window starting at 21:12 UT.
Mission duration: 42 days. Orion Splashdown: October 17.
If it could not be launched by these dates, the next useful window would
not open until late September. But some might ask: Why not simply
try again the next day? The fact is that if Artemis I were to be launched on August 30,
or any day other than those selected, the Orion spacecraft would find itself flying
in Earth's shadow. This would prevent its solar panels from keeping it powered and operational.
Only by departing on the dates indicated would Orion be able to fly in full sunlight.
The flight plan The Space Launch System rocket is
designed for missions carrying crew or cargo to the Moon and beyond, and will produce 4 million
kilograms of thrust during liftoff and ascent to carry a vehicle weighing 2,700 tons into orbit.
Lifted by a pair of boosters and four engines, the rocket will reach its period of maximum
thrust within ninety seconds. After throwing the boosters, service module panels, and launch abort
system overboard, the main stage engines will shut down and the main stage will separate from
the spacecraft, consisting of the Orion capsule, the European Space Agency-supplied Service Module,
and the rocket's second stage called the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage.
The ESA Module, we recall, is placed under the actual capsule, and will accompany it to and
from the Moon. Only before Orion returns to Earth will this module be undocked.
Inside it are the capsule's main engines, gas and propellant tanks, and various secondary engines.
The Space Launch System will carry the Orion capsule, along with the second
stage and the ESA module, into a parking orbit at an altitude of about 200 km.
After a couple of revolutions around the Earth, the solar panels will be
deployed at the appropriate time and then the second-stage engines will be turned on,
producing enough increase in speed to allow the spacecraft to leave the parking orbit.
This maneuver is called Transfer Lunar Injection and will bring the spacecraft
onto the correct course toward the Moon. This will be one of the most critical phases
of the mission. Timing in firing the engines is crucial to intercepting the Moon along its orbit
around the Earth. This allows the spacecraft to enter the lunar gravitational sphere of influence,
a region of space within which our satellite's attraction is dominant over Earth's.
A delay (or an advance) of a few minutes in the maneuver can lead to a trajectory error
such that the spacecraft will not enter the lunar gravitational sphere but will
be lost beyond the orbit of our satellite. The exact moment at which to start the engines
to perform the Transfer Lunar Injection is for this reason calculated very carefully
by engineers in the years leading up to the mission, taking into account lunar motions.
After this real topical moment, the third stage will be dropped and the phase of the journey,
called Transfer Lunar Orbit, will begin, which within three days will bring the capsule within
sight of our satellite. At that point, the engines will be turned on again to slow the spacecraft
down and insert it into circumlunar orbit. This maneuver is called Lunar Orbit Insertion.
After circumnavigating our satellite while releasing the 10 Cubesat satellites,
which represent the secondary science payload, Orion will enter a special
orbit called the Distant Retrograde Orbit. This orbit, which has never been used before,
is found to be extremely stable concerning orbital perturbations as it interacts with
the L1 and L2 Lagrangian points of the Earth-Moon system and will be the orbit that will follow the
Lunar Gateway, or Lunar Space Station, in future missions, which will be built starting in 2023.
This station will support all Artemis missions starting with Artemis 4 and provide support for
all future missions to the Moon and then to Mars. The presence of the lunar station will completely
change the approach to landings from the Apollo era. In the past, the spacecraft used by the
Apollo astronauts were capable of carrying much more propellant than the Orion. This resulted
in a greater thrust delivered by the engines that allowed, with the Lunar Orbit Insertion maneuver,
to reach a very low lunar orbit from which to directly begin descent maneuvers.
Instead, the philosophy of the Artemis program will be to dock the Orion with
the Gateway to a much higher orbit and from there descend to the surface with
a dedicated vehicle (provided by SpaceX). The orbital variant will take Orion 60,000
km away from the Moon. Thus breaking the distance record achieved by Apollo 13 in 1970.
After six days, the Orion capsule will exit the Distant Retrograde Orbit with another lunar flyby,
finally pushing it on its home course. After the usual three-day journey,
near Earth, the Orion will shed the Service Module and dive into our planet's atmosphere
traveling at 11 kilometers per second. The capsule's heat shield, so far untested,
will have to withstand temperatures of about 2,700 degrees Celsius.
After nearly six weeks, and a total distance traveled over three million kilometers,
the mission will conclude with a splashdown off the coast of Baja, California.
Will everything go well? Of course, it will, and from the
moment Commander Moonikin Campos emerges safely from the capsule we will begin to count the months
in that time until the launch of Artemis II, the mission that will take men to circumnavigate
the Moon for the first time since 1972. A mission that reminds us very closely of
the amazing feat of Apollo 8 in Christmas 1968. And just like then-yes, it will be all right.