Published on: 24/08/2022 – 08:08 Modified: 24/08/2022 – 08:06
Washington (AFP) – Fifty years after the last Apollo mission, the Artemis program is poised to take the baton of lunar exploration with a test launch Monday of NASA’s most powerful rocket.
The goal is to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972, and eventually to Mars.
The 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is scheduled to lift off at 8:33 a.m. (1233 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.
The mission, more than a decade in the planning, may be unmanned, but it is highly symbolic for NASA, which has been under pressure from China and private rivals like SpaceX.
Hotels around Cape Canaveral are fully booked with 100,000 to 200,000 spectators expected to attend the launch.
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The huge orange and white rocket has been sitting at KSC’s 39B Launch Complex for a week.
“Since we went out on the block last week, you can feel the excitement, the energy,” said Janet Petro, KSC director. “It’s really, really palpable.”
The purpose of the flight, dubbed Artemis 1, is to test the SLS and the Orion crew capsule that sits atop the rocket.
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Dummies equipped with sensors will take the place of the crew members, recording levels of acceleration, vibration and radiation.
The cameras will capture every moment of the 42-day journey, including a selfie of the spacecraft with the Moon and Earth in the background.
Splash in the Pacific
The Orion capsule will orbit the moon, coming within 60 miles (100 kilometers) at its closest approach, then fire its engines to reach a distance of 40,000 miles beyond, a record for a spacecraft qualified to transport humans.
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One of the main goals of the mission is to test the capsule’s heat shield, which at 16 feet in diameter is the largest ever built.
On its return to Earth’s atmosphere, the heat shield will have to withstand a speed of 25,000 miles per hour and a temperature of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).
Orion, its parachute-braked descent, will end its journey with a splash on the Pacific coast of San Diego.
Monday’s liftoff will be at the mercy of the weather, which can be unpredictable in Florida this time of year, and NASA has built in a two-hour launch window.
If the rocket is unable to lift off on Monday, September 2 and 5 have been marked as alternate flight dates.
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Otherwise, it’s all systems go.
NASA gave the green light to the mission on Tuesday after a detailed inspection known as the Flight Readiness Review.
That doesn’t mean things can’t go wrong with a rocket and capsule flying for the first time.
“Inherent risk”
“We’re doing something that’s incredibly difficult to do and has inherent risk,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis 1 mission manager.
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Because this is an unmanned flight, Sarafin said the mission will continue under conditions that would not be acceptable for a flight with astronauts.
“If we had a failed solar array deployment, we would proceed, and that’s something we wouldn’t necessarily do on a manned flight,” he said.
A total failure would be devastating for a program that costs $4.1 billion to launch and is already years behind schedule.
The next mission, Artemis 2, will take astronauts into orbit around the Moon without landing on its surface. The Artemis 3 crew will land on the Moon in 2025 at the earliest.
While the Apollo astronauts who walked on the moon were exclusively white men, the Artemis program plans to include the first woman and person of color.
And since humans have already visited the Moon, Artemis has her sights set on another lofty goal: an eventual manned mission to Mars.
Gateway would serve as a refueling and resupply station for a trip to Mars that would take at least several months.
“I think it’s going to inspire even more than Apollo,” NASA associate administrator and former astronaut Bob Cabana said of Artemis. “It’s going to be absolutely outstanding.”
© 2022 AFP