NASA’s Artemis 1 mission is about to take a key step in returning humans to the Moon after a half-century hiatus. The mission, scheduled to launch on Monday, August 29, 2022, is a (uncrewed) jet-cruiser for the Space Launch System and NASA’s Orion Crew capsule.
The spacecraft is scheduled to travel to the Moon, deploy some small satellites, and then go into orbit. NASA’s goal is to practice operating the spacecraft, test the conditions crews will experience on and around the Moon, and assure everyone that the spacecraft and its occupants can safely return to Earth.
The conversation asked Jack Burns, a professor and space scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder and a former member of NASA’s presidential transition team, to describe the mission, explain what the Artemis program promises to do for space exploration and reflect on how the space program has changed in the half century since humans last set foot on the lunar surface.
How is Artemis 1 different from other rockets that are routinely launched?
Artemis 1 will be the first flight of the new space launch system. It’s a heavy-lift vehicle, as NASA refers to it. It will be the most powerful rocket engine ever flown in space, even more powerful than the Apollo Saturn V system that took astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s.
It is a new type of rocket system, because it has a combination of liquid oxygen and hydrogen main engines and two belted solid rocket boosters derived from the Space Shuttle. It’s really a hybrid between the Space Shuttle and Apollo’s Saturn V rocket.
The tests are very important, because the Orion Crew capsule will have real training. It will be in the space environment of the Moon, a high-radiation environment, for a month. And, crucially, it will test the heat shield, which protects the capsule and its occupants, when it returns to Earth at 25,000 miles per hour. This will be the fastest capsule reentry since Apollo, so it is very important that the heat shield works well.
This mission will also carry a series of small satellites that will be placed in orbit around the Moon. These will make for useful precursor science, from looking further into permanently shadowed craters where scientists think there is water to making more measurements of the radiation environment, seeing what effects long-term exposure will have on humans.
The plan is for Artemis 1 to lift off, travel to the Moon, deploy satellites, orbit the Moon, return to Earth, safely enter the atmosphere and splash down in the ocean. NASA
What is the aim of the Artemisa project? What’s in the release series?
The mission is a first step toward Artemis 3, which will lead to the first human missions to the Moon in the 21st century and the first since 1972. Artemis 1 is an unmanned test flight.
Artemis 2, which is scheduled to launch a few years later, will have astronauts on board. It will also be an orbital mission, much like Apollo 8, which circled the Moon and returned home. Astronauts will spend more time orbiting the Moon and try everything with a human crew.
And ultimately, this will lead to a journey to the surface of the Moon in which Artemis 3, mid-decade, will meet the SpaceX spacecraft and transfer crew. Orion will remain in orbit and the lunar spacecraft will bring astronauts to the surface. They will go to the south pole of the Moon to look at an area that scientists have not explored before to investigate the water ice there.
Artemis remembers Apollo. What has changed in the last half century?
The reason for Apollo that Kennedy originally envisioned was to beat the Soviet Union to the Moon. The administration didn’t particularly care about space travel, or the Moon itself, but it represented an audacious goal that would clearly put America first in terms of space and technology.
The downside to doing this is the old saying, “You live by the sword, you die by the sword.” By the time the US got to the moon, it was basically game over. We beat the Russians. So we put up some flags and did some science experiments. But very quickly after Apollo 11, within a few more missions, Richard Nixon canceled the program because the political goals had been met.
NASA’s new Space Launch System is seen here being moved from the rocket assembly building to a launch pad. NASA
So fast forward 50 years. This is a very different environment. We’re not doing this to beat the Russians or the Chinese or anyone else, but to begin sustainable exploration beyond Earth’s orbit.
The Artemis program is driven by a number of different objectives. It includes in situ resource utilization, which means using available resources such as water ice and lunar soil to produce food, fuel, and building materials.
The program is also helping to establish a lunar and space economy, starting with entrepreneurs, because SpaceX is very much a part of this first mission to the surface of the Moon. NASA does not own the spacecraft, but is buying seats to allow astronauts to surface. SpaceX will then use the spacecraft for other purposes: to transport other payloads, private astronauts and astronauts from other countries.
Fifty years of technological development means that going to the Moon is now much less expensive and technologically more feasible, and much more sophisticated experiments are possible when only computer technology is calculated. These 50 years of technological advancement have been a complete game changer. Almost anyone with the financial resources can send spacecraft to the moon now, although not necessarily with humans.
NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services hires private companies to build unmanned landers to go to the Moon. My colleagues and I have a radio telescope that will go to the Moon on one of the landers in January. This would not have been possible even 10 years ago.
Artemis is an ambitious programme, but technology has advanced enormously in the 50 years since humans last set foot on the moon.
What other changes does Artemisa have planned?
The administration has said that on that first manned flight, on Artemis 3, there will be at least one woman and most likely a person of color. They can be one and the same. There may be several.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of that diversity, because kids today who watch NASA can say, “Hey, there’s an astronaut who looks like me. I can do this. I can be part of the space program.”