Artemis aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface as early as 2025.
Cape Canaveral:
Ground teams at the Kennedy Space Center prepared on Saturday for the second attempt to launch NASA’s towering next-generation lunar rocket during its maiden flight, in hopes of a fix. Technical problems ruined the original countdown five days earlier.
The 32-story High Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion capsule are scheduled to explode from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2:17 p.m. EDT (1817 GMT), kicking off the ambitious Artemis 50 program NASA’s aspirations. years after Apollo’s last moon mission. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/3PPRsbN)
The previous bid kick-off on Monday ended with a technical problem that forced a halt to the countdown and delayed the flight that had not yet started.
Jeremy Parsons, deputy program manager at the space center, told reporters on Friday that tests showed technicians had fixed a leaky fuel line that contributed to the crash. launch was canceled on Monday.
Two other significant problems on the rocket itself – faulty engine temperature sensor and some cracks in the foam insulation – were resolved by NASA to the satisfaction of NASA, Artemis mission director , Mike Sarafin, told reporters on Thursday night.
Weather has always been an additional factor beyond NASA’s control. According to the US Space Force at Cape Canaveral, the latest forecast shows a 70 per cent chance of favorable conditions during Saturday’s two-hour launch window.
If the countdown timer is paused again, NASA may reschedule another test launch for Monday or Tuesday.
Dubbed Artemis I, this mission marks the first flight for both the SLS rocket and the Orion capsule, built under NASA contract with Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp, respectively.
It also signals a major change in direction for NASA’s post-Apollo human spaceflight program, after decades of focus on low-Earth orbit with space shuttles and the Space Station. International.
Named after the goddess who was the twin sister of Apollo in ancient Greek mythology, Artemis aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface as early as 2025.
Twelve astronauts walked on the moon during the six Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972, the only spaceflight that has yet to bring humans to the Moon’s surface. But Apollo, born of the space race between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, was no more scientifically oriented than Artemis.
The new lunar program has attracted commercial partners such as SpaceX and the space agencies of Europe, Canada and Japan to eventually establish a permanent base of operations on the Moon as a stepping stone to the future. more ambitious human journeys to Mars.
Getting the SLS-Orion spacecraft off the ground is an important first step. Its maiden voyage is intended to take the 5.75-million-pound vehicle through the steps in a rigorous test flight, pushing the limits of its design and hopefully proving the right spacecraft. to fly the astronauts.
If the mission is successful, an Artemis II crewed flight around the moon and back could arrive as early as 2024, which will be followed within a few years with the program’s first landing. moon of the astronauts, one of whom was a woman, along with Artemis III.
Billed as the most complex, powerful rocket in the world, the SLS represents the largest new vertical launch system the US space agency has built since the Saturn V of the Apollo era.
Leaving no last-minute clutter, Saturday’s countdown will end with the rocket’s four main R-25 engines and its two twin solid boosters igniting to generate 8 thrust. 0.8 million pounds, about 15 percent more powerful than Saturn V’s thrust, sending the spacecraft straight into the sky.
About 90 minutes after launch, the rocket’s upper stage will propel Orion out of Earth’s orbit in a 37-day flight that brings it within 60 miles of the Moon’s surface before traveling 40,000 miles ( 64,374 km) beyond the moon and back to Earth. The bullet is expected to land in the Pacific Ocean on October 11.
Although there are no humans on board, Orion will carry a simulated crew of three – one male and two female dummies – equipped with sensors to measure radiation levels and other stresses experienced by the pilots. real-life astronauts will have to go through.
The mission’s primary goal is to test the durability of Orion’s heat shield during re-entry as it hits Earth’s atmosphere at 24,500 miles (39,429 km) per hour, or 32 times that. the speed of sound, when it comes back from lunar orbit – much faster than the more common re-entry of the capsule coming back from Earth’s orbit.
Heat shields designed to withstand re-entry friction are expected to raise the temperature outside of the capsule by nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).
Over a decade of development with years of delays and budget overruns, the SLS-Orion spacecraft has cost NASA at least $37 billion to date, including design, construction, testing, and mechanics. facilities on the ground. NASA’s Office of Inspector General has projected the total cost of Artemis to reach $93 billion by 2025.
NASA defends this program as a boon for space exploration, which has created tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in trade.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
