The NASA Orion spacecraft landed this Sunday, December 11 in the Pacific Ocean at the end of the Artemis 1 mission. In just over 25 days, this mission went around the Moon, with the aim of preparing for the return humans on its surface, 50 years after the last Apollo mission.
The landing took place off the Mexican island of Guadalupe, in the Pacific Ocean, at 17:40 UT. The capsule, which did not have an astronaut on board for this test flight, entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 40,000 km/h, and had to withstand heat of 2,800°C, i.e. half of the temperature of the surface of the Sun.
The main objective of the mission was to test under these conditions the capsule’s heat shield, the largest ever built with its diameter of 5 meters. The spacecraft was first slowed down in its vertiginous descent by the atmosphere, then by a series of no less than eleven parachutes, until it reached a speed of around 30 km/h when it hit the water.
A US Navy ship, the USS Portland, had been pre-positioned for recovery operations, which NASA has been training for years. Helicopters and inflatable boats were also deployed. Orion must be left in the water for two hours, much longer than if astronauts were on board, in order to collect data – in particular on the heat induced inside the capsule.
Divers must then attach cables to it in order to tow it to the interior of the ship, the rear of which will be partly submerged. The water must then be pumped, allowing the capsule to be slowly deposited on a support provided for this purpose. Duration of operations: between four and six hours from the time of landing. Then the USS Portland must take the road to San Diego, on the American west coast, where the capsule must be landed. Only then the Artemis mission 1 will be considered a complete success.
2.2 million kilometers traveled
The success of this mission is crucial for NASA, which has invested tens of billions of dollars in the American program to return to the Moon, Artemis. After bringing humans back to the lunar surface, his goal is to prepare for a future trip to Mars.
In 2014, a first test of the capsule had been carried out, but it had not then left Earth orbit, and had therefore entered the atmosphere more slowly (around 32,000 km/h). In total, the spacecraft has this time traveled more than 2.2 million kilometers in space since its takeoff on November 16 during the first flight of NASA’s new mega-rocket, SLS. Orion flew past the Moon just some 130 kilometers from its surface, and ventured over 430,000 km from our planet, farther than any previously habitable spacecraft.
The next step for the Artemis program is scheduled for 2024. It will be the same mission, but with astronauts on board this time. And in 2025, it will be the long-awaited moon landing, 56 years after Neil Armstrong. Only twelve men, all white, have set foot on the lunar surface thanks to the Apollo missions – for the last time in 1972, 50 years ago. The Artemis program must this time send the first woman and the first person of color there.
NASA’s goal is to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon, with a base on its surface and a space station orbiting it. Learning to live on the Moon should test all the technologies needed for a multi-year journey to Mars, perhaps in the late 2030s.
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(With AFP)