The first woman and first person of color will be sent to the Moon as part of NASA's new lunar exploration program, Artemis. NASA will use cutting-edge technology through the Artemis missions to study the Moon in new and improved ways and get ready for human missions to Mars. The Apollo Program was the name given to the initial lunar missions. John F. Kennedy made a challenge to the country in 1961: land astronauts on the moon by the end of the decade. With the Apollo mission, NASA overcame the difficulty by sending the first person on the moon on July 20, 1969. That program carries the name Apollo, a god from Greek mythology.
In Greek mythology, Artemis, the goddess of the Moon, was Apollo's identical twin sister. The South Pole of the Moon is where the Artemis astronauts will stand when they touch down. At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Artemis I will be the first combined flight test of the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and auxiliary ground systems for deep space exploration. As the first in a series of missions that get more difficult, Artemis I will lay the groundwork for human deep space exploration and show our willingness and capacity to take humanity to the Moon and beyond. By launching Orion atop the SLS rocket, operating the spacecraft in a deep space environment, testing Orion's heat shield, and recovering the crew module after reentry, descent, and splashdown, Artemis I's primary objective is to completely test the integrated systems before crewed missions.
Orion will continue its course toward a lunar remote retrograde orbit, where it will travel a further 280,000 miles from Earth and then return to Earth after traveling 40,000 miles beyond the Moon. Before Orion returns to Earth at a high speed reentry of more than 25,000 mph, this flight test will show how well the SLS rocket performs on its first flight and collect engineering data along the way. The top mission priority is the high-speed lunar velocity reentry, which will test the effectiveness of Orion's heat shield as it enters Earth's atmosphere and heats to nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius), about half as hot as the surface of the Sun. Orion will then splash down in the Pacific Ocean for retrieval and post-flight engineering evaluation.
The Artemis II flight test will be NASA's first crewed voyage aboard Orion, and it will verify that all the spacecraft's systems work as intended when people are present in the harsh environment of deep space. When SLS launches Orion into space, the initial launch will resemble that of Artemis I. Orion and the ICPS will orbit Earth twice with a crew of four astronauts before committing to the trip to the Moon to check that Orion's systems are functioning as expected while still near to Earth.
The crew will use Orion as a target for a proximity operations demonstration when it separates from the ICPS. In order to evaluate Orion's handling capabilities and associated hardware and software, the crew will line up with the ICPS using the onboard cameras of the spacecraft and the view from its windows as they approach and retreat from the stage. In advance of rendezvous, proximity operations, docking, and undocking operations in lunar orbit beginning on Artemis III, this demonstration will offer performance data and operational experience that cannot be easily obtained on the ground.
A variety of individuals from NASA, business, and various international partners will be prepared to support the project once Artemis I is prepared to launch. When the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the unmanned Orion spacecraft atop it can launch, along with a number of other performance requirements for the rocket and spacecraft, will depend on the alignment of the Earth and Moon before launch day.
After Artemis I and II, Orion and a crew of four will return to the Moon for Artemis III, making history by putting the first astronauts of the twenty-first century on the lunar surface. NASA plans to launch crewed missions about once a year starting with Artemis III, with the initial missions concentrating on developing surface capabilities and constructing Gateway, an outpost in lunar orbit that will grant access to more of the moon's surface than ever before.
Written by Zira A.
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