NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System with the Orion crew capsule perched on top, stands on launch complex 39B as rain clouds move into the area before its rescheduled debut test launch for the Artemis 1 mission at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Sept. 2, 2022.JOE SKIPPER/Reuters
The Artemis 1 mission’s second chance to orbit around the moon was foiled after a leak left engineers scrambling to plug what is believed to be a gap around a seal in the supply line for the rocket’s hydrogen fuel on Saturday.
After Tuesday, a two-week launch blackout period kicks in. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says the launch could be pushed into October as crews work on extensive leak inspections and repairs that may include hauling the rocket off the pad and back into the hangar.
The mission will take place 50 years after the Apollo program famously first sent astronauts to the moon, and will attempt to send an empty crew capsule to the moon as part of the first phase of the Artemis 1 mission.
Artemis space mission to moon ‘a stepping stone’ to Mars and beyond
The stakes are high. The outcome of this mission will set the stage for the next several years of NASA’s human space flight program, which will help determine the technologies needed to fly people to Mars. If this six-week test flight goes well, astronauts could return to the moon in as little as two years.
“It’s a future where NASA will land the first woman and the first person of colour on the moon,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson told reporters this month. “And on these increasingly complex missions, astronauts will live and work in deep space and will develop the science and technology to send the first humans to Mars.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Why were the first and second launches scrubbed?
Both launches were scrubbed due to escaping fuel. NASA’s first launch on Monday was scrubbed because of a highly explosive hydrogen leak, officials said. NASA’s teams were also unable to chill four of the rocket’s RS-25 engines to -251 C, and engine 3 showed signs of overheating.
The second launch was scrubbed on Saturday after engineers rushed to plug a leak that had created a gap around a seal in the supply line for the rocket’s hydrogen fuel. According to the Associated Press, Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson and her team tried to plug this leak the same way they did the last time: stopping and restarting the flow of super-cold liquid hydrogen in hopes of removing the gap around a seal in the supply line, twice, and this time flushing helium through the line. But the leak persisted.
The mission
The Artemis 1 is the first in a series of flights that will attempt to orbit the moon. The mission is to deposit 10 scientific satellites in lunar orbits, but the main thrust is to test its rocket and the accompanying spacecraft capsule for Artemis 2.
If all goes well, Artemis 2 astronauts could strap in as early as spring 2024, which would be the first crewed mission to the moon since the last Apollo mission on Dec. 7, 1972. Artemis 2 will orbit the moon, and aim to go beyond Earth’s satellite to build the Lunar Gateway. The astronauts in Artemis 3 will be the ones to land on the moon, placing a woman and person of colour on the moon for the first time.
Artemis 1 this week will carry mannequins on board with sensors that will observe radiation exposure from space on women’s bodies throughout the flight.
According to NASA, astronauts eventually will stay on the moon for around six days to collect data and allow mission controllers to assess the Orion’s performance.
This combination of photos shows the Saturn V rocket with Apollo 12's spacecraft aboard on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in 1969, left. At right is NASA's new moon rocket for the Artemis program with the Orion spacecraft on top at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 18, 2022.The Associated Press
The space tech
The Artemis mission’s main technology is its “space launch system,” or SLS, a rocket which is touted by NASA as its most powerful to date. Strapped to the top of the rocket will be the Orion spacecraft capsule, which carries the mannequins and eventually astronauts.
The SLS is only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts and cargo straight to the moon on a single mission.
NASA astronaut Stephen Robinson is held aloft by Canadarm 2 during a 2005 spacewalk.
The SLS stands at nearly 100 metres (a little taller than the Statue of Liberty) and weighs 2.6 million kilograms. It can generate almost four million kilograms of thrust, which is 15 per cent more thrust than the Saturn V rocket that sent Apollo to the moon. According to NASA, the SLS will be powered by twin five-segment solid rocket boosters and four RS-25 liquid propellant engine – the largest core ever made by the space agency.
Canada also has two hands in this project. The robotic Canadarm 3, which is projected to cost a total of $1.9-billion over 24 years, will be featured on the Lunar Gateway. It will maintain, repair and inspect the Gateway, snag visiting vehicles as they sail by, adjust Gateway’s working modules, help astronauts during spacewalks and assist with scientific measurements. Canada’s autonomous hands can repair themselves, but will also be operated from Earth.
NASA's Artemis I Moon rocket sits at Launch Pad Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida.EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP/Getty Images
The flight plan
From the day it blasts off to its splashdown, Orion’s flight is supposed to last between four and six weeks, which is twice as long as astronaut trips. It will travel almost 450,000 kilometres from Earth, meaning that Orion will be expected to stay in space longer than any astronaut ship has done without docking to a space station, NASA says.
Orion will travel for almost a week to reach the moon, which hovers around 386,000 kilometres away from the Earth. After several days of travel, Orion will fly about 100 kilometres above the surface of the moon, NASA says, and then use the moon’s gravitational force to propel Orion into a new deep retrograde, or opposite, orbit about 70,000 kilometres from the moon.
Orion is set to return to Earth hotter and faster than any NASA aircraft before it, and is built with the same materials as Apollo. It uses a heat shield built to withstand re-entry temperatures of 2,750 C, and its big test will be whether it can withstand hitting the Earth’s atmosphere at more than 40,000 kilometres an hour on its way back.
With reports from The Canadian Press, Reuters and The Associated Press.
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