Artemis program

The Artemis program is a planned National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission to send humans back to the moon. If executed, it would be the first time humans will have landed on the moon since 1972. NASA intends to establish both a space station in lunar orbit and a surface base camp near the moon’s south pole. The project’s launch system uses powerful rockets based on technology from the former Space Shuttle program. The crew capsule, named Orion, will transport up to four astronauts on each mission. The project was originally proposed in 2017 with a proposed execution by 2024. The name Artemis was chosen because of its two-fold meaning. Artemis was not only the Greek goddess of the moon, but also the twin sister of Apollo. Apollo was the name of the NASA program that landed humans on the moon in 1969.

Background

The Apollo program was created in 1961, tasked with landing astronauts on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Apollo cost about $25 billion—$264 billion in 2024 dollars—and successfully accomplished its goal on July 20, 1969, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and “Buzz” Aldrin landed on the moon. Five subsequent successful moon landings followed that flight, the last of which—Apollo 17—lifted off from the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt were the last Apollo astronauts to set foot on the moon.

Although several more Apollo missions were planned, budget cuts forced the program to be cancelled in 1973. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush proposed a $500 billion program that included a return to the moon by the late 1990s and the construction of a moon base by the 2010s. However, the project was cancelled in 1996. In 2004, President George W. Bush proposed another planned lunar mission, this one scheduled to land astronauts on the moon by 2020. Among the spacecraft to be developed for the project was the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, an updated version of the Apollo Command Module. This proposal also failed due to budget cuts and changing political priorities, and was cancelled in 2010. The only element of the project to survive was the Orion spacecraft.

Overview

In 2017, President Donald Trump proposed a new initiative to return to the moon. The program—Artemis—aimed to send humans to the moon by 2024. Among the program’s main goals was to establish a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface and land the first woman on the moon. The estimated project cost was $35 billion, a relatively low amount for a lunar mission. In 2021, President Joe Biden expressed his support for the project, keeping it on track for a 2024 landing. While the Artemis program is a NASA project, the space agency will collaborate with international partners and private corporations to achieve its goals.

The rocket system for Artemis is based on technology used for NASA’s Space Shuttle program, which operated from 1981 to 2011. Known as the Space Launch System (SLS), the rocket consists of a main fuel tank powered by four main engines and five booster engines. The boosters will be used during the initial stage of the launch before separating from the vehicle. The main engines will continue to propel the spacecraft into orbit before the core section of the vehicle separates from the engines. The SLS is able to generate 8.8 million pounds (4 million kilograms) of thrust, more than the 7.6 million pounds (3.5 million kilograms) generated by the Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo program.

A redesigned version of the Orion spacecraft will serve as the crew vehicle for the mission. The Orion consists of a crew capsule, a service module that supplies air, power, and water, and a launch-abort tower, which would be jettisoned after a successful launch. The spacecraft can support up to four astronauts and is equipped with a heat shield that will allow it to survive the fiery reentry to Earth. In 2021, NASA contracted with the private aerospace company SpaceX to develop a lunar lander that would allow the astronauts to reach the moon’s surface.

On November 16, 2022, the long-delayed Artemis 1 mission lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at Launch Pad 39B. Two previous launch attempts had been canceled in August and September of the same year. Artemis I consisted of the Orion spacecraft and deployment of ten CubeSat satellites. Orion successfully separated from its spacecraft, made its five-day voyage, completed two flybys of the moon, and passed within 81 miles of the lunar surface. The first orbit occurred on November 21, 2022, and the second on December 5, 2022.

Artemis 2 is scheduled to launch in September 2025. It is planned to carry three American astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch—and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. It is designed as a ten-day mission that will place the Orion spacecraft in lunar orbit before its return to Earth. In September 2026, Artemis 3 is scheduled to conduct a 30-day mission that will be highlighted by the first moon landing by humans since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.

NASA also plans to construct a sustainable lunar base camp to be used in later Artemis missions. Scientists are targeting a site near the Lunar South Pole for the base camp. The South Pole receives a relatively constant amount of sunlight, which would be needed to provide power for the base and keep temperature fluctuations to a minimum. The area also has several craters that are bathed in near-constant shadow. The temperatures in these craters would be hundreds of degrees below freezing, allowing for the presence of possible water ice. The lunar base would use the ice to support the astronauts.

Bibliography

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