After delays due to technical failures and weather conditions – including one this morning (Israel time) – NASA marked one of the highlights of the Artemis mission, on the way to return humans to the moon – 50 years after the last manned mission.
After the end of the countdown – at 08:47 Israel time – the SLS rocket, or Space Launch System, will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying the Orion spacecraft – which at this stage will not be manned.
The most powerful missile ever built
The innovation compared to other launches is the launcher. The SLS missile is the most powerful missile ever built, and it rises to a height of about 98 meters. Its engines will provide a thrust of 44,000 kilonewtons at takeoff, with a carrying capacity of about 26 tons for the LEO orbit (meaning Low Earth Orbit). In the future, the rocket is expected to provide a carrying capacity of up to 100 tons – which will enable tasks such as building a permanent settlement on Mars. Together with the spacecraft and the various stages, the height of the rocket will reach 110 meters – not far from the height of Migdal Shalom in Tel Aviv.
The development of this system began already in 2010, along with the decision to cancel NASA’s expensive shuttle program, and it is no coincidence that the orange boosters, which surround the liquid hydrogen tanks, are established and remind you of those that accompanied the shuttles in the past.
minutes before launch. Photo: NASA
Exact timing on the way to lunar orbit
About 2 minutes after launch, the thrust engines will disconnect, and about 8 minutes after launch, the first stage will also separate from the spacecraft. From that moment, the engines of the second stage will be used to perform maneuvers and put the spacecraft into orbit around the Earth. After the astronauts and the NASA control team confirm that everything is working properly, the approval will be given, and then at a very precise timing the engines will be activated, in order to escape the Earth’s gravity and to arrive at a precise timing in orbit around the moon. This is also the stage when the second stage will separate and the spacecraft will sail alone on its way to orbit As planned, 10 high-altitude satellites will also be placed along the way. These satellites will be launched from the European Service Module, which also includes the mission’s oxygen, engine, fuel, and heating and cooling systems.
The Orion spacecraft will detach from the second stage and make its way towards the moon on a journey that will last many days. In the final stage, the spacecraft will enter orbit around the moon and cruise around it at an altitude of only about 100 km. During this time, NASA researchers will test its various systems and their function. After about 25 days of testing and cruising in a lunar orbit, and after making a journey of more than 1.5 million kilometers, the spacecraft will return to Earth.
But the challenges will not end here either, because when the capsule is expected to enter the Earth’s atmosphere – on October 10 – it will do so at an unprecedented speed of 40,000 km/h, and will have to survive a temperature of approximately 2700 degrees Celsius. Similar to the landing systems of the spacecraft of SpaceX here too, will deploy a series of parachutes that will slow the speed of the spacecraft until a soft landing in the ocean waters and rescue by NASA ships.
Although the spacecraft will not be manned, it will not be empty and will have passengers in it – control dummies such as Moonikin Campos, named after a NASA engineer during the Apollo 13 mission, and will be covered with sensors for measuring radiation and acceleration. Israel also has a kind of representation in the mission in the form of AstroRad, A radiation protection vest, developed by the Israeli StemRad, and will be used to test the level of protection it provides.
If you want to see at any given moment where the spacecraft is – NASA has developed this nice tracking system.
Within two years – a manned mission to the moon
If all goes well, the plan is to launch a manned mission of the SLS rocket with astronauts by 2024, when the astronauts will be launched and reach lunar orbit – but not land on it. After that, the Artemis-3 mission is planned for a manned mission that includes landing on the moon and walking on it in 2025. By the way, as part of the mission, a woman and a non-white man will land on the moon for the first time.
NASA is not the only one in the development efforts of massive launchers for complex tasks such as reaching Mars, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX is also developing the Falcon Heavy launch rocket with the Starship spacecraft on it.
The target: Mars
With all due respect to the achievement of landing on the moon, the real goal is testing the launch systems and the spacecraft for a manned journey to Mars. Since a trip to Mars takes about half a year (as opposed to 3 days to the moon) and the delay times in communication and data transmission are particularly long – the moon is an excellent training ground for NASA and the other players in the field. If all the systems work well, it will be possible to move forward and start looking at a multi- Kochavi – or Occupy Mars as Elon Musk described it so well.