Artemis I crosses 81 miles above the Moon’s surface before heading for a record-breaking distance from Earth
like James Webb Space Telescopeit takes scientists and engineers many years and much launch effort to get The Artemis I SLS rocket and its Orion spacecraft soar into the air. After four launches over two months, the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA successfully launched last week. Good things are now coming to those waiting: The mission is going well, and soon the spacecraft will be farther from Earth than any other human vehicle has ever reached.
On Monday, Orion passed just 81 miles above the Moon’s surface while traveling at 2,128 mph. So close, yet so far away. A burn pushed that speed up to 5,102 mph as the spacecraft moved past Apollo 11, 12 and 14’s previous landing sites, according to NASA. This is a few more facts and figures to completely blow your mind:
Orion will travel about 57,287 miles beyond the Moon at its farthest point from the Moon on November 25, surpassing the record set by Apollo 13 for the farthest distance a spacecraft designed for humans. person traveled 248,655 miles from Earth on Saturday, November 26, and reached a maximum distance of 268,552 miles from Earth on Monday, November 28.
As of Monday, November 21, a total of 3,715.7 pounds of fuel have been used, 76.2 pounds less than the expected pre-launch value. There’s 2,112.2 pounds of available profit over what’s planned for use in the mission, up 201.7 pounds from the pre-launch projected value.
Just after 2:45 p.m. CST on November 21, Orion traveled 216,842 miles from Earth and 13,444 miles from the Moon, traveling at 3,489 mph.
The Artemis I mission was the United States’ first unmanned lunar return. It will take about 25 days to make a few laps around the moon before returning to Earth. The Orion spacecraft and new spacesuits on board will be pushed to their maximum limits more than a quarter of a million miles away from Earth. The next step, Artemis II, is slated to take place around 2025 and will include a crew of four orbiting the moon and will send humans into the farthest space yet. By 2026, we could set foot on the still unexplored moon Antarctica.
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Artemis quest objective anot only an opportunity to revisit the Moon, but also establish a permanent base in lunar orbit, allowing astronauts to spend weeks or even months exploring the Moon as well as serving as starting point for further exploration of our solar system.
Although the early SNAFUs delayed their launch in August, September and October, Orion program director Howard Hu told reporters Monday that Artemis flight 1 “…continues to operate exceptionally well.” bye,” from New York Times:
Except for the minor hiccups – Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin calls them “interesting things” – Artemis I’s flight went smoothly. Humor includes Orion’s star tracker being momentarily confused as the spacecraft’s thrusters fire.
“We’re on the sixth flight of a 26-day mission,” Mr Sarafin said on Monday, “so I’ll give it a cautiously optimistic A+.”
Flyby performing the main part of Artemis is not American. Parts of the Space Launch rocket were built by Boeing, Northrop Grumman and United Launch Alliance while the Orion capsule itself was built by Lockheed Martin.
However, the service module — the part of Orion underneath the capsule that houses the thrusters, solar arrays, communications equipment and other supplies — was built by Airbus and was one of the contributors. of the European Space Agency for the Artemis programme. The module will not return to Earth, but will instead be discarded to burn up in the atmosphere just before the capsule falls.
The Orion spacecraft is scheduled to return to Earth on December 11 by plunging into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
