Artemis 2022: Orion reveals the dark side of the Moon

ARTEMIS. This Tuesday, November 22, 2022, NASA unveiled the images of the far side of the Moon captured by the Orion capsule, as part of the Artemis I mission.

[Mis à jour le 22 novembre 2022 à 17h39] The Orion capsule of NASA’s Artemis I mission is currently placed in orbit around the Moon, at a distance of 370,000 kilometers from the Earth, flying over our satellite at a speed of 8,000 kilometers per hour. Monday, November 21, on the 6th day of the mission, it approached only 130 kilometers (80 miles) from the surface of the Moon, a record proximity for this first uncrewed space mission of the Artemis program.

Kennedy Space Center Nasa unveiled this Tuesday, November 22 this photo of the far side of the Moon looming beyond the Orion spacecraft on November 21, 2022, taken using a camera located at the end of one of the capsule’s solar panels:

The Orion capsule will then continue its mission by venturing up to 64,000 kilometers behind the Moon. Artemis I must allow the Orion capsule, propelled unmanned into orbit around the Moon, to test the resistance of its heat shield when it returns to the Earth’s atmosphere at nearly 40,000 km/h. The success of this Artemis I mission will allow the smooth running of the future manned flight to the Moon during the Artemis II mission in May 2024, which would be the first crewed mission to the Moon (with on board for the first time a woman and a person of color) since the Apollo program. The human landing would take place between 2025 and 2027 during the Artemis III mission, but NASA officials said the timing would depend on the success of previous test flights. Man’s first steps on the Moon date back to 1972, as part of the Apollo 17 mission.

What is Artemis’ Orion ship used for?

The Orion capsule is the space vehicle of the Artemis program intended to transport astronauts. With a capacity of 4 people, it is the capsule that will welcome the astronauts, placed in the fairing of NASA’s SLS rocket. For this first Artemis 1 mission, the Orion capsule does not accommodate astronauts, but only mannequins which make it possible to evaluate the consequences of such a flight on certain tissues and organs of the human body. It is inside this module that the astronauts of the Artemis II and III missions will return to Earth. Its resistance to the extreme conditions it will encounter on its journey must be flawless to ensure the safe return of its future occupants.

Designed by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Orion capsule will prove its worth during this first Artemis mission, which will be used in particular to test the heat shield that protects it from the heat during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere. This flight will also be an opportunity to test certain maneuvers that Orion should perform during the Artemis IV mission to assemble the modules of the Lunar Gateway station.

Who is on board the Orion capsule of Artemis?

For this first flight of the Artemis program, no human is on board the Orion capsule. Three dummies are used to test the lunar missions of future astronauts, namely Helga and Zohar, equipped with 5,600 sensors on their plastic torsos in order to record the radiation to which they are exposed, and Moonikin Campos, the captain, equipped with the space suit for future astronauts.

The dog Snoopy and Shaun the sheep are also on board the rocket. The Snoopy plush, famous comic strip dog Peanutsserves as a weightlessness indicator on this Artemis I mission for NASA, while the plush character from the TV series Shaun the Sheep is the mascot of the European Space Agency (ESA), a program partner with the Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Thanks to the app AROW (Artemis Real-time Orbit) hosted on the NASA site, it is possible to follow the 25 and a half days of the Orion capsule’s mission around the Moon, until its return to Earth on December 11.

What is SLS, Artemis’ Mega Rocket?

To carry out a program of this magnitude, NASA has acquired equipment to match its ambitions. This is how, after more than 10 years of development, the famous Space Launch System (SLS) launcher entered the history of thespace exploration. More powerful than Saturn V, the launcher of Apollo 11, the SLS rocket is the most powerful that NASA has designed. At a cost of more than 2 billion dollars, the launcher alone represents half the budget of an Artemis mission.

On Wednesday November 16, 2022, NASA’s SLS rocket, the most powerful in the world, flew to the Moon before separating from its two boosters two minutes after takeoff, which fell into the Atlantic. The main stage of the rocket, the red part, continued its course before separating from the device after 8 minutes of flight. After 18 minutes of liftoff, the Orion capsule’s solar panels deployed. After about an hour and a half, it was the turn of the second stage of the rocket to come into play and propel the Orion spacecraft into orbit around the Moon, before detaching in turn. Orion will remain in orbit around the Moon for several weeks then will return and should take about 3 days to return to Earth, with a landing planned in the Pacific Ocean on December 11, 2022. In total, the Artemis I mission must last 25 and a half days.

NASA offers on Twitter to relive the launch of the SLS rocket from launch pad LC-39B at Kennedy Space Center, NASA’s space center in Florida in the United States, which took place on Wednesday, November 16, 2022 at 1:48 a.m. in the morning local time, i.e. 7:48 a.m. French time:

What is NASA’s Artemis program?

50 years after the last step of Man on the Moon, the Artemis program, orchestrated by NASA in collaboration with the European, Canadian and Japanese space agencies, is preparing to repeat the feat. But if this program plans to set foot again on our natural satellite, the Moon, its ambitions are greater. The Artemis program is the first step towards a bigger goal: Mars. The Artemis program currently includes three phases which should lead to the return of Man to the Moon by 2027. The astronauts’ stay on the lunar soil should last 6.5 days and the crew will consist of four Americans including a woman and a person of color, NASA announces.

The major advance that distinguishes this new lunar program from the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s is the design of a permanent lunar station. Called “Lunar Gateway”, this structure located in orbit around the Moon is one of the major challenges of this new program. Indeed, this space station represents a stopover and a real laboratory for lunar exploration but also an advanced base for future missions to the planet Mars.

When is it planned to send men to the Moon?

The next mission to send astronauts to the Moon, Artemis II, is scheduled for May 2024, a year later than originally planned. This flight would be similar to Artemis I but would have astronauts on board, in what would be the first crewed mission to the Moon since the Apollo program. Landing with humans would take place between 2025 and 2027 with Artemis III, but NASA officials said the timing would depend on the success of previous test flights.

In an interview with France Info, the French astronaut revealed that he was a candidate for one of the next manned flights of the Artemis program. “From Artemis III, Europe will have a say in the matter thanks to our contribution to the Orion capsule. We will then have flights for European astronauts”. But “I am not the only one, we are some to apply for missions to the Moon (…) This means that there will be several European astronauts who will tread the lunar soil in the next decades “.

Where will the astronauts of the Artemis III mission land?

The success of this first test flight will allow the astronauts of the Artemis III mission scheduled for 2027 to land for the first time on the South Pole of the Moon, where the presence of water in the form of ice has been confirmed. . Astronauts will have to take samples from the Moon and probe its surface in order to assess the possible construction of a lunar base, which will be called Lunar Gateway.

Who walked on the moon and when?

In total, only twelve men have set foot on the lunar soil. The first to accomplish this feat were Neil Armstrong, followed 19 minutes later by Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969, during the mission Apollo 11. They spent more than two hours on the Moon and were able to take soil samples. They thus brought back the first samples of lunar rocks. Other astronauts, all Americans, succeeded them during the Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 missions carried out by NASA between 1969 and 1972. In 2027, NASA intends to send humans back to the Moon through the program Artemis.