The first NASA Moon rocket in fifty years will launch on August 29 from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
NASA is preparing the launch of the unmanned Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule as part of the organization’s Artemis I mission, which seeks to put American astronauts back on the moon.
On this mission, the technologies that could one day make a Mars landing possible are being tested.
The centerpiece of Artemis I is the Space Launch System, often known as SLS, which is the greatest rocket project undertaken by NASA since Saturn V.
The SLS launch will take place on August 29 at 8:33 a.m. Eastern time from Launchpad 39B. There is a two-hour window for launch.
In case weather prevents the launch from taking place within the window, the alternative possible launch dates are September 2 and 5.
If all goes as planned, NASA hopes to launch Artemis II in 2023, completing a human flyby of the lunar surface, followed by Artemis III, which would launch in 2025 and deliver American personnel to the lunar surface.
NASA plans to use the most powerful rocket the world has ever seen to make a trip to the Moon.
On this mission, the technologies that could one day make a Mars landing possible are being tested.
The SLS launch will take place on August 29 at 8:33 a.m. Eastern time from Launchpad 39B. A two-hour launch window is available.
As a tribute to electrical engineer Arturo Campos, who was crucial in securing the safe return of the Apollo 13 mission to Earth in 1970, Commander Moonikin Campos will be belted into the captain’s seat.
Because the rocket is very weather-sensitive, NASA must consider temperature, window, and rain before allowing the launch.
According to the Launch Mission Execution Forecast, while the overall risk from lightning seems to be low, this onshore flow regime will favor occasional showers throughout the Atlantic oceans during the launch window.
The biggest weather concerns for a Monday morning attempt, according to the Launch Weather officer, would be the Cumulus Cloud Rule, Surface Electric Fields Rule, and the Flight Through Precipitation restriction.
According to a NASA spokesperson, events that would often require the cancellation of a human launch may not have an impact on an autonomous launch.
Humans will arrive on the moon each year as part of the Artemis project starting in 2025 and continuing until the end of the decade. The cost of the Artemis project would have increased to $93 billion at that point.
The astronauts will build a base and a space station on the lunar South Pole. The advances in technology gained during this mission will assist NASA in achieving its ultimate goal, a human mission to Mars. These missions are planned for the beginning of 2040.
The launch is expected to attract around 10,000 people, many of whom will congregate at Space View Park in Titusville and Jetty Park in Cape Canaveral to see it firsthand.
The rocket will transport a fictitious crew that includes a woman to symbolize NASA’s ambition to send a woman to the Moon in the near future.
The project’s budget has greatly increased since it was first proposed. The SLC would cost $6 billion to build, and each launch would cost $500 million, according to projections from 2012.
As of August 2022, the rocket’s construction cost was $20 billion, while its launch cost was $4.1 billion, according to CNBC.
If Artemis I is successful, Artemis II will do a lunar flyby in 2024, hovering 60 miles above the Moon’s surface with four crew on board. By 2025, astronauts should be able to walk on the moon.
A more attainable date for human Moon landings is 2026, according to the NASA Inspector General’s statement from earlier this year.
In a week, Florida’s Kennedy Space Center will attempt to send the first lunar mission since Apollo 17 into orbit.
Picture of a Chinese rover that touched down on the Moon in 2019. The nation hopes to establish a base on the moon’s surface in the future.
According to Elon Musk, the Moon landing mission will be dubbed Artemis III and it may use a SpaceX spaceship. Musk has a $2.9 billion deal with NASA to complete the project in 2021.
Those astronauts would be the first people to walk on the surface since 1972.
The SLS is similar to the space shuttle in that it has two liquid hydrogen and oxygen-filled solid rocket boosters on each side.
The SLS will weigh 5.7 million pounds when fully fueled. It receives a thrust of around nine million pounds from the rockets. Nearly 15% more than the Saturn V, this. It can launch 90 tons into Earth orbit and 27 tons to the Moon.
Once Artemis I is launched, the SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever launched. Block 1 is the current design of the rocket. The Block 1B revision will be the next one.
The Orion module, which stands more than 320 feet tall and can contain more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic fuel, will launch it.
The Orion landing craft from Lockheed-Martin will carry people to the Moon. Although it has a similar exterior with the early Apollo astronauts’ landing craft, it is bigger inside and equipped with the most recent technology breakthroughs.
Astronauts may survive inside the capsule for up to 21 days without docking.
The Orion has a heat-shield to protect the astronauts from the friction of reentering the atmosphere, much like its Apollo predecessor.
The spaceship will use parachutes to slow it down as it drops from 25,000 miles per hour to around 20 miles per hour, safely returning humans to Earth in the Pacific Ocean near Baja California.
Over the course of its 42-day journey, the Artemis I mission will cover a distance of 1.3 million miles. Its primary objective is to ensure that the rocket performs as expected before human passengers take off in 2023.
The Orion spacecraft is now resting on pad 39B of the Kennedy Space Center’s NASA Artemis rocket.
The Orion will be launched by the SLS and spend the whole mission orbiting the Moon at a height of around 60 miles. As NASA seeks to ascertain how the travel would impact the human body, there will be three mannequins on board.
Importantly, NASA scientists will monitor how the Orion manages its re-entry into the atmosphere following the mission as it travels at 30 times the speed of sound.
Testing Orion’s heat shield is, in the opinion of NASA officials, the most important aspect of the mission.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson remarked at a press conference on August 3 that the only way to test this ablative heat shield is to launch it into orbit and allow it to return at 32 Mach.
He said that Orion would return to Earth faster and hotter than any other spacecraft.
The launch is expected to attract around 10,000 onlookers, many of whom will congregate at Space View Park in Titusville and Jetty Park in Cape Canaveral.
On NASA.gov, NASA TV on YouTube, and via the organization’s social media accounts, live broadcasts of the launch will be accessible.
Visit the Artemis Real-time Orbit Website (AROW), which provides images, data, and the most current news, to “pinpoint where Orion is and track its distance from the Earth, distance from the Moon, mission duration, and more.”
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