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The Moon or Bust, Says NASA, After Successful Test Flight

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The Moon or bust, says NASA, after successful test flight [theregister.com]:

NASA is ready to fly a crew of astronauts to the Moon next year after the success of the first test flight of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule.

After months of delay due to technical issues and bad weather, the SLS, with the Orion spacecraft onboard, finally took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in November 2022.

The mission, dubbed Artemis I, involved flying the SLS into space, releasing Orion and sending it into lunar orbit, and returning the capsule back to Earth to be recovered safely in one piece. Initial analysis of flight data gathered from the mission shows it was successful: the SLS performed better than expected and pulled off a near-perfect trans-lunar injection burn to deliver Orion to the Moon.

Orion fulfilled 161 test objectives and was more energy efficient than predicted, generating 20 per cent more power than predicted while consuming about 25 per cent less power than expected. All maneuvers – including flying to and from the Moon, returning to Earth, and releasing the parachute for splashdown into the Pacific Ocean – were executed without any major problems.

There are, however, a few niggling complications. Orion's latching current limiters – which act like circuit breakers to transfer and distribute power from its solar panels – switched open randomly during its flight for unknown reasons. Also, the material covering the heat shield – used to protect the capsule and prevent it and any occupants from incineration as Orion reenters Earth's atmosphere – deteriorated more than NASA thought it would.

Little things like that.

The mobile launcher part of the SLS also sustained more damage than expected. NASA said its cryogenic fuel lines corroded, while 60 panels and cabinets broke, as did its elevators and blast shields. Officials continue to review hundreds of gigabytes worth of data gathered from the mission.

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Meanwhile NASA is gearing up for the Artemis II mission, which will fly a more powerful version of the SLS rocket – and carry a group of astronauts inside Orion.

"We're learning as much as we possibly can from Artemis I to ensure we fully understand every aspect of our systems and feed those lessons learned into how we plan for and fly crewed missions," said [nasa.gov] Jim Free, NASA associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, in a prepared statement. "Safely flying crew is our top priority for Artemis II."

Engineers will, for example, modify the mobile launcher for the upcoming Artemis mission. They will build an emergency egress system at the launchpad in case the crew needs to make a last-minute exit from the rocket.

NASA hopes to launch Artemis II in November 2024, and fly the first woman and next man to orbit the Moon. The eventual goal is to land a crew of astronauts on the Moon once again, after humans first set foot on its surface over half a century ago. ®

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NASA to Reveal Artemis II Crew for Historic Lunar Trip

upstart [soylentnews.org] writes:

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NASA to reveal Artemis II crew for historic lunar trip [digitaltrends.com]:

NASA will soon reveal the four lucky astronauts that will be sent on a flyby of the moon in the Artemis II mission.

The four crewmembers — three from NASA and one from the Canadian Space Agency — will be named on Monday, April 3, NASA chief Bill Nelson announced in a tweet on Thursday.

JUST IN: On April 3, we will reveal the crew for @NASAArtemis [twitter.com] II!

Four crew members – three from @NASA [twitter.com] & one from @csa_asc [twitter.com] – will fly around the Moon. Together, they’ll test the @NASA_SLS [twitter.com] rocket & the @NASA_Orion [twitter.com] spacecraft. We are going! #StateOfNASA [twitter.com]

— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) March 9, 2023 [twitter.com]

Artemis II is currently targeted for November 2024 and will use NASA’s recently tested Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to power the crew toward the moon aboard an Orion spacecraft.

Following the same route as last year’s Artemis I mission that tested the new spaceflight hardware, the four astronauts will come within just 80 miles of the lunar surface in what will be the first crewed voyage to the moon in five decades. It will also fly humans further from Earth than ever before, to a point about 270,000 miles away.

If everything goes to plan, NASA intends to land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface as part of the Artemis III mission, which could take place within two years of Artemis II.

Both missions will take NASA and its counterparts another step closer to building a permanent astronaut base on the moon, paving the way for long-duration missions similar to how astronauts currently live and work [digitaltrends.com] aboard the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit.

The expectation is that research and development projects on the moon will help NASA prepare for the first crewed mission to Mars, which could take place in the 2030s. Crewed Mars missions could even launch from the lunar surface using a rocket powered by fuel converted from lunar water.

In related news, NASA also said that it will reveal its next-generation spacesuits in a special event on Wednesday, March 15.

The spacesuits, developed by Texas-based Axiom Space, will be worn by the Artemis III astronauts when they set foot on the lunar surface.

Using more than 50 years of spacesuit expertise, NASA created the technical and safety requirements for the new spacesuits. Axiom Space then worked with these guidelines to build the suits and associated support equipment.

“New spacesuits that allow humans to explore the lunar surface advance our capability for human exploration in space,” NASA said.

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SpaceX confirms readiness for launch of most powerful rocket

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Gary Henry, SpaceX's senior director for national security space solutions, said at this week’s Space Mobility conference in Orlando, Florida, that the engine test two weeks ago was “the last box to check” ahead of the rocket’s maiden test flight.

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NASA, SpaceX delay Crew-6 launch to space station

Following a flight readiness review on Tuesday, NASA and SpaceX have decided to delay the Crew-6 launch to the International Space Station by about 24 hours.

The additional time will enable launch personnel to sort out some relatively minor issues with the launch vehicle, officials said.

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