When Neil Armstrong of Apollo 11 first set
foot on the moon and said his famous line
“That's one small step for a man, one giant
leap for mankind.”
he did that in the name of all humanity.
And even though he’s an american, and NASA
is a governmental institution, the whole world
felt the joy and sense of achievement.
But these achievements stopped with the end
of the Apollo program back in 1972 with the
last mission being Apollo 17.
Ever since, no human has stepped on the moon
for reasons both political and financial.
Now, the hope is restored again!
With NASA planning on sending the first woman
and the next man back to the moon by the year
2024, and then onward to Mars, and that’s
through NASA’s new project the “Artemis
Program” with help from US commercial companies
and other countries as well.
Before we get into the details of the program,
let’s first discuss the name!
Artemis is the Greek goddess of the Moon,
and sister twin to Apollo.
And NASA chose her name to lead the new inclusive
path towards the moon.
NASA doesn’t just want to go back to the
Moon now, because it’s trendy!
There are clear and focused goals for why
it is important to visit the moon at this
time.
Going to the moon in the 2020s will be so
much different than going in the 1960s and
70s, because this time, NASA is going to the
moon to stay!
And that means astronauts will have to look
for water and resources on the moon to use
for long duration missions for purposes such
as drinking and cooling and producing rocket
fuel.
The second goal is for astronauts to learn
how to live and work in habitats on a celestial
body.
In addition to sending humans to visit the
lunar south pole of the moon for the first
time ever, this unexplored face of the moon
that contains ice and potentially other resources.
But probably the most important far-sighted
goal is Mars!
Because it is important to test new technologies
and strategies in a relatively near environment
where we have more control before taking it
one step farther to mars.
You can think of it this way, if you want
to win the world cup, you must first practice
regionally to gain more confidence and fix
your mistakes before you go on and compete
globally!
Now, how exactly is NASA planning to return
to the Moon?
Well, they have a couple of new fancy technologies
to help them.
The first is the “Orion spacecraft” named
after the winter constellation Orion or “the
hunter”.
NASA is building this new spacecraft specially
for the Artemis program to be able to carry
astronauts to the moon and Mars and then back
to Earth.
The Orion spacecraft is planned to be tested
some time this year in the uncrewed mission
“Artemis 1” before it gets ready to be
tested with astronauts onboard.
The “Artemis 1” mission will last for
a total of 3 weeks, during which, the Orion
Spacecraft will reach the Moon and stay in
orbit for 6 days 450 thousands kilometers
(280 thousand miles) away from Earth.
This will allow mission control down on Earth
to assess how the spacecraft works and performs
and fix any issue if they were to appear.
The Orion spacecraft has also a very powerful
heat shield!
During the journey back to Earth and while
it enters Earth’s atmosphere, Orion will
sustain a temperature of 2,760 degrees Celsius
(5,000 degrees Fahrenheit).
If all goes well and Orion lands back safely
on Earth, it should be ready to be tested
with humans on board as part of the “Artemis
2” mission planned for the year 2022.
The second technology is the “Gateway”,
this is a space station that will be orbiting
the moon at a distance of almost 66 thousand
kilometers (41 thousands miles)!
That is 450 thousands kilometers away from
Earth (280 thousands miles).
The “Gateway” will work as a stop station
between the Earth and the moon to give astronauts
easier access to the lunar surface.
It is an absolutely vital part of the Artemis
program and is planned to be built in the
2020s with the first element sent into space
in the year 2022.
You can think of the “Gateway” orbiting
the moon just like the international space
station “ISS” orbiting Earth, where astronauts
will also perform scientific experiments and
get to know the lunar surface a bit more.
In addition to that, the “Gateway” is
supposed to make contact with the Orion spacecraft
and host the astronauts on board in preparation
to land on the lunar surface.
The “Gateway” will provide astronauts
with life support and communication needed
for the landing process.
The “Gateway” also has several docking
ports to be able to welcome cargo missions
delivering science equipment in the future,
and NASA has already granted SpaceX permission
to be the first US commercial company to deliver
cargo to the “Gateway”.
We should also mention that the “Gateway”
will not only be an American effort, it will
pretty much be a global collaboration just
like the international space station.
Many space agencies have planned to contribute
to the building of the “Gateway” like
the European, Canadian, Japanese, and Russian
space agencies.
Huge dreams need huge rockets.
And since no rocket in the spaceflight game
is worthy enough of going back to the moon,
NASA decided to build a brand new one specially
for the occasion, we’re talking about The
third technology the “Space Launch System”
rocket or “SLS” for short.
The “SLS” is a new rocket being developed
by NASA engineers and other US companies,
it will be able to send the Orion spacecraft
and the crew along with cargo to the moon
in a single flight!
It will be the only rocket who has the capabilities
to deliver that much mass into space in a
single trip.
The “SLS” is going to be designed in order
to be upgraded to different configurations,
each configuration more powerful than the
previous one.
The first configuration called “Block 1”
will be taller than the statue of liberty
and more powerful than the “Saturn V”
rocket.
it will be able to deliver up to 26 metric
tons of mass into space.
The “SLS” block 1 will be used in the
“Artemis 1” mission when NASA is going
to test the Orion spacecraft and the “SLS”
rocket itself.
The second “SLS” configuration is called
“Block 1B” and it will be able to deliver
up to 37 metric tons of mass into space.
The design of the “SLS” will evolve until
it reaches “Block 2 cargo” which will
have the power to deliver more than 45 metric
tons of mass.
The “Space Launch System” rocket will
not only be reserved for missions going back
to the moon, NASA also plans on using the
rocket to put scientific missions into their
paths to planets like Mars and Jupiter and
Saturn.
If you have been paying close attention, you
would’ve noticed that all these new technologies
being developed are “sustainable” and
can be used for more than one spaceflight,
and that’s exactly the kind of spirit NASA
is embracing while going back to the moon.
NASA wants to make space accessible and affordable
in the near future, and in order to achieve
that, key components of spaceflights must
be reused to cut the cost, exactly like what
SpaceX is doing with its rocket the “Falcon
9”.
Following the same path, NASA is also redefining
how it will launch rockets in the future including
the “SLS” rocket!
And that’s through the “Exploration Ground
Systems” Program “EGS”.
The “EGS” program will upgrade the facilities
required to launch rockets, to provide the
opportunity for the facilities to be able
to launch different kinds of rockets and serve
different kinds of companies: governmental
and commercial.
Another vital part of the Artemis project
are the suits!
When the first woman and the next man walk
on the moon in the future, they’re gonna
walk in style!
Forget the old inconvenient Apollo suits,
and welcome the new Artemis suits that NASA
spacesuit engineers have designed specially
for the next journey to the moon.
If you’ve seen clips of Apollo astronauts
walking on the moon, you’ve probably come
across several ones of astronauts having difficulty
moving around and even falling over the lunar
surface.
And that’s because the Apollo generation
spacesuits were not exactly the most flexible
regarding mobility, and astronauts had to
bounce around the surface to be able to move.
Additionally, picking up things from the surface
or rotating the arms was an agony for astronauts,
because the suit’s shoulders didn’t have
much mobility.
With NASA’s new spacewalk suit called “Exploration
Extravehicular Mobility Unit” or “xEMU”
all these issues are a thing of the past,
the suit will customly fit each astronaut
using the latest technologies in anthropometry
and biomechanics.
The lower torso of the “xEMU” suit will
give future astronauts the ability to rotate
and bend, a luxury lost on Apollo suits.
The “xEMU” will also be equipped to protect
astronauts from being injured by the fine
and glass-like grains on the moon’s surface.
Inside the current suit helmet, astronauts
use a headset for communication between each
other or between them and mission control
back on Earth.
This headset which is more famous known as
“Snoopy caps” will be replaced in the
“xEMU” by an array of wireless sensors
and microphones to be activated when the astronaut
speaks.
NASA has also developed a suit for launch
to the moon and reentry back to Earth and
called it the “Orion Crew Survival System”
suit to be worn by astronauts during flights
to and from the moon onboard the “Orion”
spacecraft.
The suit comes in a staggering pumpkin orange
colour in order for rescue groups to be able
to identify the astronauts if they had an
emergency and had to land in the ocean.
The suit’s number one concern is to protect
astronauts during launch and reentry, and
it’s basically a whole spacecraft for one
with the ability to be fully operational for
six days in case the astronauts had an emergency.
The suit is fire resistant and has a cooling
garment layer, as well as its gloves being
compatible with the use of touch screens.
The suit’s size is also custom fit to better
suit the astronaut.
The two kinds of suits we mentioned are both
meant for lunar missions, but NASA engineers
say the suits can be also suitable for future
Mars missions after performing some adjustments.
Finally, the Artemis project is not only for
NASA’s inside engineers, you too can have
a say in some of the design aspects, and even
participate in the design yourself!
In june of this year, NASA announced the need
for a new space toilet!
And wants you and the public to come up with
a new design suitable for future astronauts
on the Moon.
The design has to be lighter than space toilets
being used now on the international space
station to reduce the propellant used on launch.
The “Lunar Loo challenge” as NASA named
it, is open for both adults and kids age 12
and under with a prize of $35,000 shared between
the top 3 winning designs.
You can participate through the link in the
description.
If all went as planned without any delays
because of the Pandemic, the mission “Artemis
3” will go on in the year 2024 to deliver
the first woman and the next man to the moon.
And after that, the missions are planned to
continue on each year.
