Launch of Artemis I: mannequins instead of astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft

Tomorrow, Saturday September 3, the SLS (Space Launch System) should take off from Cape Canaveral for the Artemis I mission, the first of the new American lunar program. This test mission is unmanned. There will be no passengers aboard the Orion ship except mannequins. What is their role ?

Artemis I aims to qualify both the SLS mega-rocket but also the ship Orion. Even with the experience of the missions Apollo, Artemis flights will be significantly different. To better understand the feelings of astronautsNASA decided to install three mannequins in the spacecraft equipped with numerous sensors. The idea is to use the data to best protect astronauts from the Artemis II mission.

Commander Moonikin Campos

The first dummy is the only one complete, the other two are devoid of limbs. Moonikin Campos is equipped with a survival suit (the Orion Crew Survival System suit) which will equip the astronauts of the Artemis missions during the critical phases of the flight in the Orion spacecraft. Its name was selected during a competition, in memory of the American engineer Arturo Campos who was in charge of the electrical systems for the Apollo and space shuttle missions. He notably played a major role in the rescue ofApollo 13.

It is equipped with numerous sensors, including two radiation sensors. Indeed, already during the Apollo flights, the astronauts were subjected to radiation linked to the solar wind or to cosmic rays. This is the reason why the missions were short duration. The Artemis missions will go even further, culminating up to 70,000 km above the lunar surface, compared to a few hundred for the Apollo missions. NASA intends to measure radiation exposure with these new trajectories.

Helga and Zohar

This is the name of the other two dummies which will be equipped with 5,600 passive sensors and 34 radiation sensors as part of the Matroshka AtroRad Radiation Experiment (pond), an international experience including NASA, the German Aerospace Center or even the Israeli space agency. For the experience, Zohar gate a radiation protection jacket while Helga is without one. The comparison will test the effectiveness of this jacket in case of storm solar.

In addition to the mannequins, Orion carries other radiation sensors, including dosimeters from theeuropean space agency as well as other scientific experiments. There is also 10 cubesats on board the SLS as secondary passengers.