Artemis Missions: All About NASA’s Moon Exploration

In 1969, Apollo 11, NASA’s mission to land on the moon, was a huge success. Apollo, the name of a Greek God, marked history by proving the possibility of humans reaching the moon. Artemis, the Greek Goddess and the twin sister of Apollo is the name of NASA’s moon exploration mission that started in 2017. This mission has the goal to set a permanent base on the surface of the moon that will facilitate human missions to Mars. This mission is divided into 5 parts in which Artemis I is completed, and Artemis II is ongoing in 2024. Artemis III, IV, and V will follow in the upcoming years.

Overview

A Constellation program that was presumed to be an unrealistic launch was canceled by Barrack Obama in 2010.  However, the work on this program went on as NASA was determined with the plan of Orion. Later, Orion became a part of Artemis, a lunar mission, under the administration of Donald Trump.

Apollo was the result of the Russia and USA conflict back then. During that time Russia was leading in space operations and that was a threat to the USA’s reputation. In order to overtake Russia, US President John F. Kennedy himself declared the Apollo mission. This induced a lot of pressure on NASA as the technology was not so advanced in the 1960s. It was also very expensive as there were tests to make sure of the success of the mission in a very short time. The USA used more than 4% of its GDP in the blink of an eye to achieve this.

Now, almost 50 years later, NASA has prepared again to send humans into space. This time it does not only restrict to that but also plans to colonize the moon to facilitate Mars Missions. It plans to set up a base on the moon that will aid in reaching Mars.

Artemis Mission

With bigger goals, NASA has been prepared this time. With the objective of not risking any human life and successfully reaching the moon, NASA has designed a spacesuit that, in case of emergency can keep the astronauts alive for 10 days in space while NASA can have the time to bring them back safely. It has not spared any detailing in the tests and spacecraft.

Space Launch System(SLS)

The Artemis spacecraft is divided into two parts, the first part is known as the Space launch system, which will serve the purpose of leading the Orion capsule to the moon. The SLS is a very powerful launching system. It has been designed in a way that this engine can be used in other missions as well. It is built with an RS-25 engine which is the most used engine by NASA. RS-25 engine was made by Rocketdyne company, which makes specialized rocket engines.

Each SLS is instilled with 4 RS engines and each RS engine thrusts equal to 8 F-15 jet engines. RS engines are 14 feet tall and 8 feet wide which makes them as heavy as a car. This makes scientists believe that SLS can not only reach the moon but also reach Mars. SLS is almost 100 feet tall and weighs around 2500 pounds with a speed of 18000 miles per hour. Furthermore, to reach a maximum amount of thrust in times of need it is fueled with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.

The cost of SLS amounted to nearly 24 Billion Dollars which made it the most expensive Launch system. Even though SLS are reusable systems the cost of launching them each time amounts to almost 2 billion dollars.

Orion (Crew Module)

The first part of Orion is the launch abort system which is designed to be shaped in a sharp way as it will serve the purpose of going through the air pressure. It will protect the spacecraft from the air pressure. It is also built in a way that in case of emergency, astronauts can shift into this and have a safe landing on Earth.

A cone-shaped Orion is a crew module that can hold four astronauts. This crew module’s design is slightly bigger than the Apollo mission’s. Since it has an increased capacity of two members and a total capacity of four, it will also have a small bathroom installed.

A cylindric service module is connected to the Orion. It powers the spacecraft with its four solar arrays and also sees to the supply of air and water, it is Orion’s main engine. It also carries fuel because, after the separation of the crew module from the spacecraft, the service module takes over. The test flight of Orion was conducted in December 2014, where it completed two orbits of Earth.

Artemis I

Artemis I started on 16 November 2022 intending to test the spacecraft and its impact on human life in space. The solid boosters attached to it start the launching process by thrusting around 8 Million pounds and reach its maximum speed in 90 seconds. It goes on for at least 2 minutes burning all its fuel to reach space, after which it detaches itself from the spacecraft.

NASA had sent 3 dummies into the space crew module. One was naked, one was wearing normal clothes and the third one was wearing the suit designed by NASA. It was all set up to understand the effect of radiation on the human body and its safety, and also to measure how much radiation can the human body take.

The Orion after getting detached from the spacecraft made an orbit of the Earth. After this, it left 13 cube satellites in space for further observation of radiation. Speeding up it goes towards the orbit of the moon. During this process, Orion has a speed faster than a fired bullet. Due to this, it reaches the moon’s orbit in time, revolves around it, and comes back toward Earth.

It was planned to land in the Pacific Ocean but with the speed at which it enters the earth’s orbit, it becomes as heated as a fireball. To minimize the speed it detaches the service module as it is no longer required. With the help of thrusters, the speed is minimized further. The Orion with the help of multiple parachuts, then lands in the Pacific Ocean. This mission took about 25 days to be completed and the Orion came back on 11 December 2022.

Artemis II

The objective of Artemis II is to take the astronauts into space in the same way and make the orbit of the Moon. They will complete the orbit of the moon and then come back to Earth. This mission is planned to be completed in 21 days. It is to test the foundational Human space exploration, Orion, and the SLS along with astronauts. NASA has also revealed the names of the astronauts going on this mission:

• Jeremy Hansen
• Christina Hammock Koch
• Victor Jerome Glover
• Reid Wiseman

The mission is scheduled to be launched around September 2025.

Artemis III & IV

Artemis III planned to land humans on the moon so that they could test the matter on the moon’s surface and then come back to Earth. For humans to land on the moon a Human launch System (HLS) is required which will attach to the Orion to receive astronauts and then land them on the moon safely and vice versa. The project of creating the HLS is given to SpaceX. Whereas in Artemis IV they will set up a base on the moon with every requirement. They will also build a plantation area to grow crops and a solar field to generate energy.

Artemis IV is planned to be completed by 2030 even though it is a bigger mission. It will require a lot of things to set up a base for humans to settle down on the moon. For which NASA will have to Launch multiple spacecraft. It has a huge budget which NASA needs to minimize as it will be very difficult for the American Government to spend billions every time.

References

Artemis Mission – A New Era of Space Exploration