Towards a new step on the Moon. The Orion space capsule successfully returned to Earth on Sunday, December 11, after orbiting the Moon, as part of the American space agency’s Artemis 1 mission.
For twenty-five days and with three mannequins and a stuffed sheep as crew, this mission aimed to test the capsule’s heat shield, the largest ever built with its five meters in diameter. Another record for a habitable spacecraft, the Orion capsule moved more than 432,000 kilometers from Earth.
After this ” general repetition “NASA is already preparing its next visits to the Moon, Artemis 2 and 3, with the long-term objective of settling permanently on the star.
►Artemis 2, with astronauts on board
Given the success of Artemis 1, elements of the Orion capsule as well as the data collected will be reused for the next space trip, Artemis 2. Officially scheduled for 2024, this second mission of the American space agency must take a crew four to six astronauts to the Moon, without landing there.
The names of the astronauts chosen for this mission should be announced very soon. NASA wants to take women and non-white people from the United States and Canada into space.
► Artemis 3, first moon landing since 1972
It was finally during the Artemis 3 mission that astronauts landed on the Moon. A first since Apollo 17 in 1972, the last mission to have taken astronauts to the Moon.
However, this mission should not take place before 2025 according to official projections, or even 2026 or 2028. The American space agency plans, for the first time, to land its capsule on the South Pole, where there is water in the form of of ice.
► And after?
Eventually, NASA wants to multiply the round trips between the Earth and its nearest star. And this with a view to installing a station in orbit, the Lunar Gateway. Similar to the International Space Station, Gateway will be smaller and orbit the Moon, unlike the ISS, which orbits Earth.
Relaunched during Donald Trump’s presidency, space exploration also has the planet Mars in its sights. These visits to the Moon could thus only be a first step in order to offer trips to the red planet.