Three months after NASA’s new lunar rover returned to Earth, the US Space Agency has called the Artemis I mission a success and is gearing up for its next launch as early as November 2024.
But as engineers delved into the terabytes of data from that maiden voyage, they uncovered serious hardware issues that needed further scrutiny before they could safely put humans into orbit on the next launch. These issues included severe damage to the mobile launcher (the platform of the Space Launch System rocket) and the Orion spacecraft’s protective heat shield.
Jim Free, NASA’s deputy director for exploration systems development, told reporters on Tuesday that he was “accelerated to this mission.” “We need to make sure we understand everything we’re doing, the risks we’re taking, and the performance of this car moving forward.”
NASA is back in business on the moon. This is what it means.
Tweet may have been deleted
(opens in new tab)
(opens in new tab)
NASA launched the Artemis I mission on November 16, 2022. This is the first deep space flight of a capsule built to carry astronauts in half a century. The Orion spacecraft was sent more than 250,000 miles from Earth to her, including her 40,000-mile swing past the moon, on a 25.5-day orbital journey to test various orbits. rice field. The U.S. Space Agency said it put her 1.4 million miles on the odometer when it touched down in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico’s Baja California peninsula on December 11, 2022.
No one was inside Orion, but the unmanned test flight made it ready for the next Artemis II spacecraft to have up to four astronauts on board. Through its Moon-to-Mars program, NASA hopes to one day build a lunar base that orbits the moon, witness and conduct research on women of color and people of color for the first time to walk on the moon. We want to spend a long time collecting lunar surface samples. One eye is fixed to the red planet about 100 million miles away.
“We have a heartbeat on this mission. We need to make sure we understand everything we do, the risks we take, and the performance of this vehicle moving forward.” there is.”
Tweet may have been deleted
(opens in new tab)
(opens in new tab)
Did Artemis succeed?
i want more chemistry and tech news delivered straight to your inbox? Mashable’s Top Stories Newsletter today.
The main purpose of the maiden flight was to put the spacecraft into orbit and retrieve it. But another primary objective was to see how Orion’s heat shields would withstand the extreme temperatures as the spacecraft plummeted through Earth’s atmosphere. Orion traveled at 24,500 miles per hour in temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, returning faster and hotter than any spacecraft ever.
At a press conference, Orion manager Howard Hu said the heat shield was supposed to be a little charred, but it wasn’t as charred as the team observed in its post-flight analysis.
“You’re seeing larger, smaller pieces flaking off rather than ablation,” he said, referring to the type of thermal vaporization the technicians expect. He said the team has yet to determine if the material needs to be redesigned.
NASA said the MegaMoon rocket’s mobile launcher suffered unexpected damage during takeoff of Artemis I.
Credit: NASA
Ground teams also take a closer look at the mobile launcher, which has been smashed by the rocket’s violent blast and 8.8 million pounds of thrust. A gaseous nitrogen supply line corroded, damaged some cabinets and control panels, and destroyed an elevator his tower, said Sean Quinn, his manager of the Exploration Ground Systems Program. One of the two elevators has already resumed operation, and repairs have begun on the other.
“Artemis II will be ready,” he said.
“Artemis II is ready.”
Is Artemis II safe for astronauts?
The Artemis I mission leader said the Orion spacecraft suffered more “charring” than expected as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.
Credit: NASA
Still, the team has more data to confirm before completing an assessment of whether Artemis II is safe for its crew. A NASA official said it has recovered three of his sensor-equipped test dummies (Commander Muunikin Campos, Helga and Zohar) from the spacecraft, but has no information to share about them yet.
The findings come 1.5 months after a NASA panel voiced its concerns.(opens in new tab) Regarding the agency’s safety culture, he said, “it may have declined, leaving NASA vulnerable to the same flaws that caused its previous failures.” The group noted problems that occurred during his second launch attempt on September 3, 2022. At this time, the liquid hydrogen line was manually overpressurized, causing a large hydrogen leak. That human error ultimately led to the launch being scrubbed.
According to the latest Aerospace Safety Advisory Committee report released in January, the committee said the manner in which the issue was communicated to launch directors was consistent with NASA’s standards for avoiding “organizational silence.” said no.
Tweet may have been deleted
(opens in new tab)
(opens in new tab)
The mission leader said Tuesday that the team had immediately updated the rocket refueling procedure, automating some steps previously controlled by staff and giving the team time to familiarize themselves with the new protocol.
“These issues, in my view, have been resolved,” Free told Mashable on a conference call. “I wouldn’t say they are behind us because there will always be humans in the system. But as someone said, we will make mistakes. Let’s not make the same mistakes. .”
