“Then, we will use what we learn on and around the moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.” “We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Nasa said: “With Artemis missions, Nasa will land the first woman and first person of colour on the moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. ![]() Nasa is now planning to return with its Artemis missions, which it hopes will eventually lead to a manned flight to Mars. ![]() It is nearly 50 years since a human last landed on the moon – the half-centenary of Apollo 17 will be celebrated in December. They're looking for anything they may have missed in initial inspections as they get ready for the second step in the historic Artemis program.Īrtemis 3 is planned for 2025 and will include the first woman and first woman of color on the surface of the Moon.Bennu asteroid sample successfully returned to Earth could give a glimpse into planet's history 24 September, 2023 The fathers reading to children study makes no mention of genetics - parents can just ignore it 22 September, 2023 Don't be too worried about the Empire State Building-sized asteroid colliding with Earth 21 September, 2023 What is the purpose of the mission? In the meantime, NASA engineers will spend the next few months reviewing data from the Artemis 1 mission, including more inspections of the Orion crew module. Another key part of the Artemis program that will be based in Houston is the Lunar Gateway, a space station that will eventually be parked in lunar orbit and will serve as a support station for activity on and around the Moon. Johnson Space Center will continue to play a key role in the Artemis program, with flight operations and the astronaut training program based here. It's important to the team that we do that and it's important to all of our stakeholders, which is basically the public, that we execute what we say we're going to execute." "It's important for us to execute our mission and hit our commitment," McClung said. The last time a NASA astronaut was on the Moon was 1972. Unlike the Space Shuttle program or the International Space Station, the Artemis program includes landing on the Moon and eventually on Mars. Returning to the Moon is a huge undertaking and comes with unique issues to work through for the space agency. Part of the challenge for NASA is sticking with a timeline and avoiding big delays. "The crew will start training, the flight control team will start our mission simulations, the engineers and the test team in Florida will continue to test and assemble Artemis 2, the actual flight vehicle and get it ready," McClung said. NASA is expected to announce the four-person crew for Artemis 2 early this year. NASA hopes to carry that success into 2023, a year that will include integrated testing of the new Artemis 2 Orion crew module and the service module, which propels the spacecraft in space and helps it get back through Earth's atmosphere at the end of the mission. We didn't have any massive gotchas, which was fantastic." "We test the vehicle thoroughly on the ground. "We really didn't have any big technical challenges where we got a huge surprise, which was great," McClung said. The empty Orion crew module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja on December 11 after a 25-day mission that covered 1.3 million miles, including a loop around the Moon. Judging from the early returns of the Artemis 1 mission, NASA is off to a good start. "It gets a little more difficult in the sense that now you have astronauts to bring home safely and so some of the discussions you'll have and what your risk trades that you'll do along the way are different because I clearly don't want to ever lose a vehicle, but I definitely don't want to lose the crew, so that modifies the decision-making process to some extent." "It's easier in a sense that you have the astronauts to feed back," Orion Program Planning and Control Office Chief of Staff Stu McClung said. ![]() For NASA, the challenge ahead is obvious Artemis 1 didn't have a crew on board. Fresh off the success of the Artemis 1 mission that concluded last month, NASA says it has a busy year ahead getting ready for the next Artemis launch planned for late 2024.Īrtemis 2 will fly past the Moon deeper into space and will use a different, updated Orion crew module, one of four that will be built for the program over the next few years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |