The Americans are once again aiming for the moon with the Artemis program. Its first mission is due to take off this Monday, August 29, from Florida, kicking off the American program back on the satellite. The goal of this ambitious journey is to send the first woman and the first person of color to the lunar surface. Its name was chosen in echo of the Apollo program, having taken the only 12 men to have ever walked on the Moon, between 1969 and 1972. The name of the mission alone is evocative: Artemis, in Greek mythology, is the sister twin of Apollo (Apollo in English) and a goddess associated with the Moon. The various missions of Artemis must keep the planet in suspense until the end of the decade. Before the final objective: to allow humans to travel to the planet Mars.
The most powerful rocket developed by NASA is due to take off Monday morning (8:33 a.m. local time, 2:33 p.m. in France) from Florida. Between 100,000 and 200,000 visitors are expected for the launch of this mission called Artemis-1, which will propel a vacuum capsule to the Moon. The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, will witness the takeoff.
This is the first test for the Artemis-1 mission, which is to test without a crew NASA’s new giant rocket, dubbed SLS, for Space Launch System, as well as the Orion capsule at its top, which will be used to transport astronauts safely in the future. Orion will go into orbit around the Moon before returning to Earth.
For this time, only three humanoids are on board, equipped with sensors to record vibrations and radiation levels. They will be used to measure the radiation load that will be felt by the astronauts in order to assess how best to protect them. On-board cameras will make it possible to follow this journey of 42 days in total. The capsule will circle the moon one and a half times before returning to Earth.
For NASA, the event is also highly important, since it has been preparing for takeoff for more than a decade. A complete failure would remain devastating, for a rocket with a huge budget (4.1 billion per launch, according to a public audit) and late (ordered by the American Congress in 2010, with a take-off initially expected for 2017).
With its ESM service module for the American Artemis mission, the European Space Agency (ESA) has been entrusted for the first time by NASA with the responsibility of a critical system for the success of a future manned mission. The ESM (European Service Module), manufactured by Airbus, with the contribution of ten member countries, is placed under the Orion capsule.
This cylinder, about four meters in diameter and height, for a mass exceeding 13 tons, will carry the capsule towards and around the Moon after separation from the main stage of the SLS launcher, about eight minutes after takeoff.
Non-pressurized, the ESM will also provide the Orion capsule with electricity – using four solar panels -, water, oxygen and thermal control essential to the life of the astronauts who will travel there from the second mission Artemis. The module will perform orbital maneuvers and attitude control of Orion and can even later be used to transport additional cargo to the future lunar orbital station Gateway.
On Twitter, the European Space Agency speaks of a “historic moment for Europe.”
- A first woman on the moon in 2025
Scheduled for 2024, Artemis-2 will take astronauts to the Moon, but without landing there, as Apollo 8 did. The composition of the crew must be announced by the end of the year. We already know that a Canadian will be part of it and thus become the first to go into deep space. The Artemis-3 is scheduled for 2025 and will be the first in the program to land astronauts – including the first woman – on the Moon. They will arrive for the first time on the South Pole of the Moon, where the presence of water in the form of ice has been confirmed, and not near the equator as during Apollo.
ESA also hopes to be able to start the trip, perhaps on the Artemis-4 or 5 missions, in order to see the first European set foot on the Moon “before the end of this decade”. Negotiations are still ongoing with NASA.
NASA selected SpaceX to build the Artemis-3 lander. Concretely, this lander will shuttle between the Orion capsule and the lunar surface: once it has arrived in orbit around the Moon, the capsule will dock with the craft, sent separately upstream, which will then be responsible for lowering the astronauts to ‘to the surface, then to bring them up. It is then aboard Orion that they will return to Earth.
- The moon, a springboard to Mars?
Paradoxically, the star actually targeted by the Artemis program is not the Moon, but Mars. NASA wants to test the technologies needed to send the first humans to the red planet: new suits, a vehicle to move around, a mini power plant, the use of lunar water… The creation of a base on the surface of the Moon is considered. The Artemis program also includes the construction of a station in orbit around the Moon, called Gateway, which should then serve as a stage before future trips to Mars.
- The Artemis mission, a message sent to China
The Artemis program also aims to embody the future of the space agency, and to prove that it is still capable of competing, particularly in the face of the ambitions of China or SpaceX. When the Americans relaunched the race for the moon in 2019, China announced, the same year, its intention to put a man on the satellite around 2030. For a few decades, the communist regime has endowed itself with a space regime impressive, by injecting billions of euros into its space program. China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003 and does not intend to stop there.