WASHINGTON: After passing closer to the Moon and further into space than any previous habitable spacecraft, NASA’s Orion capsule The final test of a high-stakes mission called Artemis is scheduled to splash down on Sunday.
As it is enters the Earth’s atmosphere. At a speed of 25,000 miles (40,000 km) per hour, the gumdrop-shaped passenger would encounter temperatures of 2,800 degrees Celsius (5,000 Fahrenheit)—about half the surface temperature of the Sun.
A splashdown near the Mexican island of Guadalupe in the Pacific Ocean is scheduled for 1739 GMT (9:39 a.m. local time).
Succeeding in this mission of just 25 days is key for NASA, which has invested tens of billions of dollars in the Artemis program to return people to the Moon and, someday, further trips to Mars. can be prepared.
So far, the first test of this unmanned spacecraft has gone very well.
But it’s in the final moments of the journey that the real challenge comes: seeing if Orion’s heat shield, the largest ever built, actually holds up.
“It’s safety-critical equipment. It’s designed to protect the spacecraft and the passengers, the astronauts on board. So the heat shield needs to work,” said Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin.
The first test of the capsule was conducted in 2014, but during that time the capsule remained in Earth orbit, so it returned to the atmosphere at a speed of about 20 thousand miles per hour.
Helicopters, divers and boats
A US Navy ship, the USS Portland, is docked in the Pacific Ocean to recover the Orion capsule in an exercise that NASA has been practicing for years. Helicopters and boats will also be deployed for this task.
The falling spacecraft will be slowed down first by Earth’s atmosphere and then by a network of 11 parachutes until it drops to a speed of 20 miles (30 km) per hour when it finally exits the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean. hit
Once there, NASA will let Orion float for two hours — much longer than if the astronauts were inside — to collect data.
“We’ll look at how the heat returns to the crew module and how that affects the temperature inside,” said Jim Gaffry, NASA’s Orion vehicle integration manager.
Divers will then attach cables to hoist Orion onto the USS Portland, an amphibious transport dock ship, whose stern will be partially submerged. This water will be slowly ejected so that the spacecraft can rest on a platform designed to hold it.
It should take four to six hours from the time the vessel first comes down.
The Navy ship will then depart for San Diego, California, where the spacecraft will be unloaded a few days later.
By the time it returns to Earth, the spacecraft will have traveled 1.4 million miles since it took off on Nov. 16 aboard the SLS rocket.
At its closest point to the Moon, it flew less than 80 miles (130 km) from the surface. And this Broke the distance record For a habitable capsule 268,000 miles (432,000 km) from our planet.
Artemis 2 and 3
Recovering the spacecraft will allow NASA to collect data that is critical for future missions.
It included information about the spacecraft’s condition after flight, data from monitors measuring acceleration and vibration, and the performance of a special vest worn on a mannequin in the capsule to test how people would feel during spaceflight. How to protect yourself from radiation.
Some of the capsule’s components should be good for reuse in the Artemis 2 mission, which is already in advanced planning stages.
The next mission planned for 2024 will take a crew to the Moon, but not yet land on it. NASA is expected to announce the names of astronauts selected for the trip soon.
Artemis 3, scheduled for 2025, will be the first time a spacecraft has landed on the moon’s south pole, which contains water in the form of ice.
Only 12 people – all of them white men – have set foot on the moon. They did this during the Apollo missions, the last of which was in 1972.
Artemis is about to send a woman and a person of color to the moon for the first time.
NASA’s goal is to establish a human presence on the Moon through a base on its surface and an orbiting space station. Learning to live on the moon could help engineers develop technologies for a years-long trip to Mars, perhaps as late as the 2030s.