OR The test flight of the Artemis 1 mission has endedbut Artemis 2, which will be the first with astronauts on board, won’t happen until at least 2024.
In a recent interview, Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASAcomplained about the long wait between Artemis 1 and Artemis 2.
“I created the biggest hype about it,” he said. “If this first mission is successful, meets its objectives and is safe for the astronauts, why can’t we do the next one in less than two years?”
Nelson said that years ago, to save money, NASA decided to repurpose some of the electronic equipment, known as avionics, from Artemis 1’s Orion capsule into Artemis 2’s new Orion capsule.
“It takes two years to take the avionics apart and redo them,” Nelson said. “This is very frustrating to me, but it is what it is.”
There will be four astronauts aboard Artemis 2🇧🇷 Three will be from NASA and one from Canada, as foreseen in the part of the agreement that defines the Canadian Space Agency’s participation in the Artemis program. NASA has not yet announced the names of the astronauts who will fly on the mission.
The trajectory of Artemis 2 will be quite simple. After launch, the second stage of the space launch system will launch Orion into an elliptical orbit extending up to 2,800 kilometers above the Earth, giving astronauts time to test Orion’s systems.
Then, when Orion returns to its starting point in orbit, its engine will fire throw it to the moon🇧🇷 In the Artemis 2 mission, the Orion spacecraft will not enter orbit around the Moon; instead, it will use the Moon’s gravity to return to Earth, which is expected to land in the Pacific Ocean. The whole trip should take about ten days.
The big event will be Artemis 3, currently expected no earlier than 2025.
During the moon landings of program Apollo in the 1960s and 1970s the lunar module was placed on the Saturn 5 rocket. The Artemis 3 lunar module will be a version of the Starship rocket built by SpaceX🇧🇷 Lunar Starship will be launched separately. Additional spacecraft will then be launched to replenish the lunar spacecraft’s propellant (rocket fuel) tanks before it leaves Earth’s orbit.
On the Moon, the Starship module will enter something known as a near-rectilinear halo orbit, or NRHO.
Halo’s orbits are influenced by the gravity of two bodies, in this case the Earth and the Moon, which help make the orbit highly stable, minimizing the amount of propellant needed to keep the spacecraft in lunar orbit. A spacecraft in this orbit never passes behind the Moon, where communications with Earth are cut off.
Once Starship is in orbit around the Moon, the Space Launch System rocket will send four astronauts in an Orion capsule into the same nearly straight orbit as the halo. Orion will dock with the spaceship. Two of the astronauts will transfer to the Starship rocket, landing somewhere near the moon’s south pole, while the other two will remain in Orion orbit.
After about a week on the surface of the Moon, the two astronauts will depart on the Starship and rendezvous with Orion in orbit. Orion will then return the four astronauts to Earth.
In August, NASA announced 13 potential landing sites near the lunar south pole.
Astronauts aboard Artemis 4 will make their way to the Gateway, a space station-like outpost that NASA will build in the same near-rectilinear halo orbit used for Artemis 3. This mission will use a Space Launch System rocket with a modernized second stage , giving it enough power to drive the Gateway’s habitat module along with it.
NASA’s original plan was for Artemis 4 to build the Gateway. This year, however, the US space agency has decided that the mission will also include a trip to the lunar surface. Last month, NASA announced that SpaceX will supply the Artemis 4 lander.
In the case of Artemis 5 and later missions, the lunar module will be docked with the Gateway. The astronauts will arrive at the Gateway in Orion and then transfer to the Lunar Module for the journey to the Moon’s surface.
NASA is evaluating bids from another company to supply the Artemis 5 lander. Blue Origina rocket company created by Jeff Bezosfounder of Amazon.
NASA would then bid for future lunar landers, just as it hired companies to deliver cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station.
Translated by Clara Allain
