The powerful SLS rocket and the Orion capsule of the Pot they just wait for the end of the countdown to take off on Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida (USA). In this way, he will embark on a historic trip without a crew to the Moon, the terrestrial satellite that has not received visits of this type since the end of the Apollo program.
If all goes as planned, at 8:33 a.m. local time (12:33 GMT), the rocket will be launched from pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, kicking off the Artemis I mission and a six-week journey that will take 450,000 kilometers from Earth before embarking on a return that will culminate in its return in October.
?Onerocket. One mission. Many ways to watch #Artemis I launch to the Moon.
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The two-hour launch window opens at 8:33am EDT on Aug. 29. https://t.co/D9RaNE9Gfq
— NASA (@NASA) August 27, 2022
According to a cable EphFor the launch, the presence of the US Vice President, Kamala Harris, is expected, as well as celebrities such as actors Jack Black and Chris Evans.
The mission marks the start of the Artemis program with which NASA opens a new chapter in space exploration, marked by the establishment of a lunar base and the sending of a crew to Mars. Artemis takes over from the Apollo program, whose last mission, Apollo 17, occurred in 1972 and represents the last time that man has landed on the lunar surface.
The Artemis III mission would touch the earth’s satellite in 2025, and would also do so with the first woman and the first man of color to travel to the Moon. Previously, this program, which takes the name of the twin sister of the God Apollo, will send its first manned mission, Artemis II, in 2024, which will make the same journey as its predecessor covers from Monday.
WHERE NO OTHER SHIP HAS GONE
“It is going to revolutionize space exploration,” Carlos García Galán, a Spaniard and head of the European Service Module Integration Office of the Orion spacecraft, told NASA’s own Spanish agency, after highlighting that one of the goals of the program Artemis is “to develop the technology and knowledge to operate in deep space.”
During the 42-day mission, NASA seeks to test the 98-meter-high SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, which is powered by four RS-25 engines and two attached propellers, characteristics that They offer 15% more power than the Saturn rocket used in the Apollo missions, as García Galán said.
In the same way, the capabilities of the Orion ship will be measured, in which up to four crew members can fit, that is, one more than the Apollo, and with water and oxygen reserves that would allow it about 20 days of independent travel.
LIVE: The countdown to launch is on. Get the latest weather and status update ahead of the scheduled Aug. 29 liftoff of #Artemis YO. https://t.co/SKQJm51t2r
— NASA (@NASA) August 28, 2022
Two hours after tomorrow’s launch, and after separating from the SLS rocket, the Orion will continue on its own a journey that in total will cover about 2.1 million kilometers. The spacecraft will fly close to the Moon, about 62 miles (almost 100 km) from its surface, and then enter a distant lunar orbit in which it will be more than 61,000 kilometers from the Earth’s satellite, that is, as far as no other crew capsules have arrived.
Upon his return, on October 10, Orion awaits another tough test, such as successfully descending off the coast of San Diego, in California (USA), with the support of eleven parachutes and in which he must slow down vertiginous the 40,000 km/h speed with which it will reach the Earth’s atmosphere, a moment in which it will withstand up to 2,760 degrees Celsius of temperature.
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According to specialized media, NASA will wait for the completion of this mission, which has involved an investment of 4 billion dollars, to publicize the astronauts that make up the crew of the Artemis II mission.
The first three missions of this program will offer new information about the Moon, as well as the effects on the physiology of humans produced by extensive periods in space, taking into account long-range missions to the so-called “red planet”.
With information from Eph.
