Written by: Bobby Brown
In the next few weeks, NASA’s Artemis Programme kicks into high gear, with the first of what the agency hopes will be several launches to the moon.
This is NASA’s most ambitious undertaking, since Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap” in 1969, and exactly 50 years since the sixth and last manned moon landing in 1972. The aim of the Artemis missions is to start establishing humanity’s first permanent base on and around the moon.
The first mission, Artemis-1 was unveiled to the public recently and is currently undergoing rigorous testing at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, from where it is expected to launch before June this year.
Artemis Programme testing is key
This will be an uncrewed mission that will be blasted around the moon, to test systems and capability to endure the journey and return to earth intact. Just to be sure, the mission will travel 450 000km into space, well beyond the lunar orbit, to make sure the astronauts will be safe. It all hinges on the so called “Wet Testing” that’s currently taking place.
NASA’s new Space Launch Systems – the most powerful mega-rocket ever built is being put through it’s paces, with the new Orion capsule in place on the nose.
If Artemis-1 proves successful, then those astronauts will be strapped into Artemis-2 for the same joyride around the moon and back. It’s all basically a test run for Artemis-3, the actual lunar landing mission, which NASA hopes to blast off in 2025. If everything runs as smoothly as the recent hardware roll-out, then great things lie ahead for NASA.
Artemis is the beginnings of a spacefearing species
The Artemis Programme is meant to serve as a resupply station – a pit-stop for refueling and replenishing spaceships before they head out into deep space. By having supplies like fuel and food already on the moon, the loads of deep space launches from earth can be reduced significantly. Less fuel and supplies, means lighter spaceships, which in turn lessens the energy required to escape earth’s gravity, which in turn reduces the danger associated with launching.
Artemis will create the first inter-planetary pit stop
But it could also mean that NASA becomes a sort of lunar pit-stop for other countries and space missions, just like a garage on a long road trip. If you’re driving to Jo’burg, you don’t need to take all the petrol along with you, because you can fill up along the way.
The moon will become that garage for trips to Mars, for example, which could mean that other countries won’t need to build ridiculously powerful rockets for lift-off anymore. It’s a very sweet deal, if NASA gets it right.
And some speculate that pit-stops like the moon and eventually Mars, could be the way for humanity to reach deeper into the solar system and eventually the galaxy, by hoping from one pit stop to another.
