WE ARE GOING BACK TO THE MOON!
ARTEMIS 1 — The first mission of the Artemis programme
The journey of half a million miles — The first flight of the Artemis Generation — is about to begin!
Artemis 1 is ready to depart — the entire human race will be present to witness this thunderous historic event. The human is ready to return to the Moon, with sights set on Mars and beyond. This crucial test flight will propel Orion farther than any human-related spacecraft has ever gone, putting new procedures and systems to the test and paving the way for future crew missions.
If you read my previous article, (https://medium.com/@Thakshila.Wijesinghe/back-to-the-moon-with-the-first-woman-will-it-be-one-step-closer-to-the-mars-2e29ef39276a) I briefly explained the entire ARTEMIS program with three main missions. As a summary of my previous article, the launching timeline of the Artemis programme is Artemis 1–2022, Artemis 2–2024 and Artemis 3–2025.
Actually, I thought of writing about those three missions separately as well.
On August 17, 2022, around 7.30 a.m., the ARTEMIS 1 — the space launch system rocket and the Orion spacecraft arrived at the launch pad of NASA’s modernized Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a nearly 10-hour journey from the Vehicle Assembly building.
According to the official website of NASA, this Space Launch System Rocket is considered the most powerful rocket in the world, designed to send humans to deep space. The space launch system rocket is about 322 feet in height and it will have a mass at liftoff of about 5.75 million pounds. Also, It will produce a maximum thrust of 8.8 million pounds, exerting more power than any rocket ever, and its propulsion will be delivered in stages, as with many rockets. The Orion spacecraft, which is considered the spacecraft of the next generation, is designed to meet the needs of human missions to the far reaches of deep space. The height of the crew and service module is about 26 feet and the mass to the moon is about 53,000 pounds and the return mass at landing is about 18,200 pounds. The exploration vehicle Orion will serve as the means of getting the crew into space, sustaining them while they are there, and enabling safe re-entry from deep space at high return velocities.
Leaving the Earth
On 29th August 2022, The rocket will be propelled by two five-segment boosters and four RS-25 engines, and it will reach the maximum atmospheric force in ninety seconds. The core stage engines will shut down after the boosters, service module panels, and launch abort system has been jettisoned, and the core stage will separate from the spacecraft.
As the spacecraft approaches Earth’s orbit, its solar arrays will be deployed, and the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) will provide Orion with the powerful thrust required to leave Earth’s orbit and travel to the Moon. Orion will then separate from the ICPS about two hours after launch. The ICPS will then deploy a number of small satellites known as CubeSats to conduct various experiments and technological tests.
On the moon
The Orion will be propelled by a service module provided by the European space agency and it will supply the space craft’s main propulsion system and power. And also it will provide house air and water for astronauts in future missions. The Orion spacecraft will pass beyond the Van Allen Radiation belts, the global positioning system satellite constellation and also above the communication satellites in earth orbit. The Orion will switch from NASA’s Tracking and data relay satellites system and as well as it will communicate through the deep space network and from here the Orion will continue to demonstrate its unique design in order to operate in a deep space environment.
The outbound trip to the Moon will take several days, during which time engineers will evaluate the spacecraft’s systems and, as needed, correct its trajectory. Orion will fly about 62 miles (100 km) above the Moon’s surface before being propelled into a new deep retrograde, or opposite, orbit about 40,000 miles (70,000 km) from the Moon by the Moon’s gravitational force
The spacecraft will remain in that orbit for about six days to collect data and allow mission controllers to assess the spacecraft’s performance. During this time, Orion will travel in a retrograde direction around the Moon from the direction the Moon travels around Earth.
What is the importance of this ARTEMIS 1 mission?
After over a half-century, this is the foundation for sending humans back to the moon.
And also this will lay the path to sending the first women to the moon.
Not only that this is a milestone which will eventually lead to the first human setting on the surface of Mars. Because, as I have mentioned in my first article about the ARTEMIS programme, a straight mission from earth to mars or vice versa would take at least seven months and a round trip mission takes approximately more than 500 days. But if man can utilize the moon to start the mission as a base camp, a crewed mission can get there just in three days. Not only that, the Artemis mission 1 will carry 10 tiny CubeSats to space. Actually several of these sats will map the distribution of water on the moon. This water will not only sustain the astronauts but currently, scientists are conducting research to convert moon water to rocket fuel. As a result, none of the spacecraft which plan to travel to mars from earth wouldn’t need to blast off with all the fuel required for the whole journey.
In my point of view, all of these above-mentioned moons to Mars objectives will be a reality, if all plans of Artemis 1, goes according to the plan.
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