NASA ‘s lunar program – Artemis – was unveiled at the White House press conference Location

NASA’s ongoing Artemis mission – a mission to get people back to the moon by 2024 – was well received at this week’s White House press conference (February 4, 2021), a welcome encouragement for those waiting to hear which Artemis will proceed under the new. Administration by Joe Biden. At the meeting, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said (@PressSec on Twitter) said:

… I am excited about it now to tell my daughter about it.

So for those who haven’t been following it so closely: Through the Artemis program, the U.S. government will work with industry and international partners to send astronauts to the surface of the moon – another man and a woman to the moon – a is very interesting; make new and exciting science; preparing for future missions to Mars; and reflect American values.

So far, only 12 people have walked on the moon; that was fifty years ago. The Artemis program, a route to Mars, allows you to just add numbers to that, of course. Lunar study is gaining widespread and bicameral support in Congress, as outlined recently in omnibus consumption bill FY2021. And we certainly support this effort and effort.

Watch the February 4 newspaper on YouTube, or read the official transcript.

The idea for the first launch since 1972, and the first female, for the moon – with the mission originally aimed to land in 2024 – came from the Trump administration. The Democratic Party platform – a practical list of the Democratic Party’s goals for the next four years – announced in the summer of 2020 briefly outlined Artemis, along with other space priorities:

Democrats continue to support NASA and are committed to exploring and finding space. We believe in following the spirit of discovery that has enlivened NASA’s human space exploration, as well as the scientific and medical research, technological innovation, and educational mission that allows us to better understand on our own planet and place in the universe. We will strengthen support for the United States’ place in space through our continued presence on the International Space Station, working in partnership with the international community to continue scientific and medical innovation. We support NASA ‘s work to return Americans to the moon and further to Mars, taking the next step in studying our solar system. Democrats also support the strengthening of NASA and the Earth and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth observation missions to better understand how climate change is affecting our home planet.

However, despite the many proposed technical challenges that will delay Artemis’ mission, no new date – just the 2024 date – has been announced for the return of humans to the moon.

EarthSky lunar calendar shows the level of the moon for each day in 2021. Order yourself before they leave!

It has been speculated that Biden ‘s administration would, at the very least, slow down the Artemis program, possibly freeing up money for Earth science and other priorities elsewhere in the organization. On December 20, 2020 – as Psaki stated in its remarks on February 4 – two U.S. government Congress houses agreed on NASA’s final budget for fiscal year 2021. In the report that accompanied the bill, Senate advocates note:

• Difficult to study the future impacts of funding the lunar acceleration mission on other important NASA missions.

But now 2021 is here, and, once again, the Biden administration has confirmed its support for Artemis. That is music to the ears of those who want humans to orbit Earth again, for the first time in decades.

All indications so far are that Artemis ’first mission, an unmanned mission, is still scheduled for launch in November 2021 from the organization’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. That mission is Artemis 1. That despite a reported component failure of the Orion cone-shaped space capsule, the vehicle that will eventually bring astronauts back to the moon.

The November 2021 launch will be a test of both the Orion capsule and the planned rocket launch, known as the SLS, or Space Launch System.

Artemis ’second mission – planned for 2023 – will test Orion’s emergency systems with people on board. It is thought to be the first crew mission to travel beyond Earth ‘s low orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Then comes the mission of Artemis 3, the one that astronauts are expected to carry back to the moon, hopefully in 2024. The Artemis program is part of Donald Trump’s Space Policy Guidance 1, approved in December 2017. The stated goal is to return American astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972 and to:

• Establish a base for a final mission to Mars.

In the Artemis 1 mission, the Orion crew model and SLS rocket are expected to launch together from Kennedy Space Centre’s historic Launch Complex 39B. The SLS – a more powerful rocket than the Saturn V sent by Apollo astronauts to the moon – will deliver 8.8 million pounds of space (39 million newts) with all five boosters and four engines during construction to 6 million pounds (2.7 million kg intake)) of a vehicle into orbit.

After they release the boosters, the engines shut down and the main stage (main body) of the rocket separates from the spacecraft.

After that is a series of technical motion levels that give Orwn the brawn needed to leave Earth’s orbit and head to the moon, but not before turning off several small satellites called CubeSats while them on the way. These CubeSats perform a series of experiments and demonstrations unrelated to Artemis’ mission in deep space, such as exposing living microorganisms to a deep space radiation environment for the first time in more than 40 years. year.

Once in a lunar orbit, Orion will collect data and allow controllers to evaluate mission performance for about a week. When ready to return home, Orion will use their internal space system provided by the European Space Agency (ESA), along with the lunar eclipse, to return to Earth.

ESA’s service model – as well as intra-space movement – will provide power, air and water for future message astronauts.

About three weeks and more than 1.3 million miles (2.1 million km) later, the Artemis 1 mission will end with a test of Orion’s return capabilities by directing it to land near a reconnaissance ship off the coast of Baja, California . This could all seem like a lot of complicated, technical work. The NASA video below shows the entire Artemis 1 mission.

The SLS test was delayed by a coronavirus pandemic, but the process has now resumed at the organization ‘s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Although a hot fire test did not go off earlier this year – January 16, 2021 – as expected, NASA has announced through the Artemis blog that a second test could take place in the fourth week of February. The hot fire is the final test of the Green Run test series, a complete evaluation of the main stage of the Space Launch System before the launch of the Artemis 1 mission.

Test delays like the one that happened with the January hot fire test do not leave much margin to keep things on track for the release of Artemis 1 at the end of 2021.

Following the hot fire test, the platform will be upgraded and taken to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for even more testing. The development of Orion, led by Lockheed Martin and Airbus Defense and Space, has been delayed, although the spacecraft is on track to begin preparing to launch Artemis 1 in the first part of 2021.

The second mission – Orion crew capsule test mission, Artemis 2 – is scheduled for August 2023.

Future crew exploration missions aboard Orion dock with Gateway, a center NASA plans to build in orbit around the moon to support a sustained, long-term human return to the lunar surface. NASA lunar director Marshall Smith said:

We don’t have to take a big leap at the same time. For future missions, after proving that we can get to the moon and get a landlord to work, we can then dock them both with the Gate.

Meanwhile, in early December 2020, NASA announced that they have selected 18 astronauts from their body to shape what they call Team Artemis. Two of these astronauts are thought to be the first American male and female to return to the moon since 1972. NASA then said it would later publish flight specifications for astronauts, drawing from Team Artemis.

The program Artemis, at least, is named for the sister of the sun-god, Apollo, in Greek mythology.

You can find names and short visas for Artemis Team members here.

Bottom line: At a White House press conference on February 4, 2021, White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed Biden’s administrative support under NASA’s Artemis program, which has the long-term goal of sending the next and first woman to moon by 2024 The program has been experiencing technical difficulties, but – at the time of writing – the first release in the series, Artemis 1, is still scheduled for late 2021.

Through NASA

Tro WhiteHouse.gov