The Moon, Artemis, Orion- What is this all about?
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It was slow on purpose. When you are moving the world’s largest rocket, you take your time. In this case, the crawler carrying Artemis I took 11 hours to travel the four miles from the assembly building to the launch pad.
You’ve undoubtedly heard the slogan from NASA, “We are going back to the moon, this time to stay.” The other tagline is, “to land the first woman and the next man on the moon.” The plan was to accomplish this by 2024. That deadline will be missed, but the program, funded by you the American Taxpayer, is moving forward with the massive rocket now on the pad.
Timelapse of Artemis I's long journey to the launchpad. (Credit: Boeing- NASA)
NASA officials say watching the slow motion move is motivating, with one making a comparison to some of the sci-fi machines in Star Wars. NASA’s Associate Administrator for Exploration, Tom Witmeyer told reporters that the crawler, “the most phenomenal thing I've ever seen. The mobile launcher is just an incredible structure, and we moved that whole crawler transporter and mobile launcher with a rocket as big as the Saturn five out to the pad… that is quite an incredible feat.”
A MOMENT TO SAVOR
Whitmeyer admitted this kind of vehicle has not been seen at NASA in decades. As a Washington DC resident, he points out that it’s nearly as tall as the Washington Monument. The Launch Director told her crew to take a moment when the rocket was on the move. Charlie Blackwell-Thompson told colleagues to, “appreciate where you are and appreciate this moment, because being a first doesn't come along that often in your career.”
NASA's Tom Whitmeyer and Charlie Blackwell-Thompson highlighted the milestone of the roll out of Artemis I. (Credit: LinkedIn-NASA)
There are a lot names and acronyms associated with this project, and plenty of challenges. So, here is an explainer of the elements of the program you will see and hear about over the next few years.
TWIN SISTER
The overall program is called Artemis. In Greek mythology, Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo (someone at NASA came up with this great name). This first rocket and test mission is called Artemis I. The plan is to fly the unmanned Artemis I around the moon.
NASA promotional film on the Artemis program. (Credit: NASA)
Artemis II will carry a crew of four around the moon, but they will only get an orbital view of the lunar surface. Artemis III will carry four astronauts as well, with two of them landing on the surface.
SLS-ORION-GATEWAY-HLS-CAMP ARTEMIS
Here are some additional elements of the program which have their own name.
That big rocket is called SLS, the Space Launch System. It was built by Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Aerojet Rocketdyne and uses engines that came from the Space Shuttle program. The bottom of the big rocket has four RS-25 engines from the old shuttles. There are a total of 16 RS-25’s for the first four missions. These are not reusable rockets.
(Credit: NASA)
On top of the rocket is the Orion crew module. It’s a capsule shape like the old Apollo spacecraft, but bigger. The volume of Orion is about 50% larger than Apollo. The spacecraft has special shielding to protect astronauts from radiation during long journeys. The hope is that Orion will carry astronauts to Mars as well as the moon.
Inside the Orion spacecraft. (Credit: Lockheed Martin)
To reach the surface of the moon astronauts will need a Human Landing System. That first lander will come from Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. SpaceX is building Musk’s dream of a Starship and Super Heavy booster to reach to Mars, too. SpaceX, having beat several competitors, is building a version of the Starship for NASA to land that first crew.
Concept of the lunar orbiting Gateway station. (Credit: NASA)
There are two other large parts of the Artemis program. The Gateway is a lunar orbiting way-station, or mini-space station, to stage for landings on the moon. Then there is the Artemis Base Camp. Because NASA plans to stay on the moon, it will need an operating moon base. The landing will be near the moon’s South Pole so the astronauts can look for ice. Water to drink, sure. But water can be broken down to hydrogen and oxygen breathable oxygen and hydrogen for rocket fuel.
Artemis I on its way to Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39B. (Credit: NASA)
ONE MORE BIG TEST
The first term you will hear soon is “wet dress rehearsal.” The launch teams will fill the massive fuel tanks with supercooled hydrogen and oxygen which make up most of the main-core stage. They will practice a countdown all the way to T-10 seconds. But they won’t fire the engines. That test firing, called a Green Run, has already been conducted. They actually needed two Green Run’s, because the first one had an early automatic shutdown.
There is still plenty of work ahead before astronauts take “the small step for man, a giant leap for mankind.” NASA still doesn’t have a next generation spacesuit for walking on the moon. The SpaceX Starship hasn’t reached orbit.
But, we are a big step closer to going back to the moon.
(Cover photo credit: NASA)