:strip_icc()/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2022/0/r/e0MbrLSYW1xs9uPiT4dg/ap22236529586546.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1)
This Monday (29), at 9:33 am (Brasilia time), a 98-meter long rocket will take off from Kennedy Space Center in the US state of Florida. Fate? THE Lua.
–
The rocket, the most powerful in the history of the history of NASAmarks the beginning of the Artemis I mission – part of a new phase of lunar exploration who wants to bring humans back to the surface Lua, 50 years after the Apollo program. And the goal goes further: to reach, in the future, the Mars.
–
- ARTEMIS I MISSION: view details
–
This Monday’s mission is still unmanned, but is highly symbolic for the NASA – which, today, no longer has the Soviets as competitors (as in 1969, when Neil Armstrong joined Lua for the first time) – and yes the China and private competitors such as SpaceXfrom Elon Musk.
–
–
–
Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, pictured in 2016. – Photo: Jose Jordan / AFP
– –
If all goes well, however, the astronauts of the American space agency could prepare, in 2024, to take a tour around the natural satellite of the Land. NASA plans to land two people on the lunar surface by the end of 2025.
–
But agency officials warn him the flight, a six-week trial, is risky and can be stopped if something fails.
–
“We will make it do things we would never do with a team, to try to make it as safe as possible,” NASA chief Bill Nelson told The Associated Press Wednesday.
–
NASA astronaut Stanley Love gave an interview to Reuters news agency explaining the risks a bit:
–
“The main point of flight does not occur until the last few minutes, when we return to Earth’s atmosphere after falling from the moon at something like 24,000 miles per hour. [cerca de 39 mil km/h]5 thousand degrees [Fahrenheit, cerca de 2.750ºC] in that heat shield, “he said.
–
Nor was the mission cheap: it cost more than $ 4 billion (about R $ 20 billion). If we consider the costs from the beginning of the program, ten years ago, until the moon landing in 2025, they are 93 billion dollars (about R $ 471 billion).
–
See below 5 points about the Artemis I flight:
–
–
The moon sets in front of NASA’s Artemis rocket, with the Orion spacecraft on board, in block 39B of the Kennedy Space Center, June 15, 2022. – Photo: AP Photo / John Raoux
– –
The new rocket is shorter and thinner than the Saturn Vs, which launched 24 Apollo astronauts to the moon 50 years ago, but more powerful, with 4 million kilograms of thrust. Unlike the streamlined Saturn V, the new rocket has a pair of thrusters remade from NASA’s space shuttles.
–
At 3 meters high, the capsule Orion it is more spacious than the Apollo capsule, and can accommodate four astronauts instead of three.
–
For the test flight, a life-size mannequin in an orange flight suit will occupy the commander’s seat, equipped with vibration and acceleration sensors. Two other mannequins, made of material that simulates human tissue – female heads and torsos, but without limbs – will measure cosmic radiation, one of the greatest risks of space flight.
–
Unlike the rocket, Orion was launched earlier, circling the Earth twice in 2014.
–
Orion’s flight is expected to last six weeks, from takeoff in Florida to landing in the Pacific. It will take nearly a week to reach the moon, which is 386,000 kilometers away.
–
After spinning close to the Moon, the capsule will enter a distant orbit, staying 450,000 kilometers from Earth, farther than the Apollo.
–
The big test comes at the end of the mission, when Orion hits the atmosphere at 40,000km / h on its way to a dive in the Pacific.. The heat shield uses the same material as the Apollo capsules to withstand re-entry temperatures of 2,750ºC. The advanced design anticipates the fastest and hottest returns of future crews headed to Mars.
–
In addition to the three test dummies, the flight has a number of “stowaways” for deep space research.
–
Ten satellites the size of a shoebox will be launched once Orion is launched to the moon. NASA expects some to fail, given their low-cost, high-risk nature.
–
In a salute to the future, Orion will carry some lunar rock fragments collected by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 in 1969and a screw from one of its rocket engines, recovered from the sea a decade ago.
–
More than 50 years later, the Apollo mission is still NASA’s greatest achievement. Using technology from the 1960s, it took the US space agency just eight years to launch its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, to the moon, and until Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed.
–
Twelve Apollo astronauts walked the moon from 1969 to 1972, staying no more than three days at a time.
–
On the other hand, Artemis has been dragging on for more than a decade. For the new mission, NASA will use a diverse group of astronauts – currently 42 people – and is extending the time the teams will spend on the moon to at least a week. The goal is to create a long-term lunar presence.
–
The agency promises to announce the first lunar crews once Orion returns to Earth.
– –
