Revisiting the Moon
Leaving on April first and returning on April 11,, the Orion spacecraft (later called “Integrity” by the crewmembers) successfully circled the moon as a means to test the new spacecraft in the Artemis II mission.
The Artemis II mission was officially the first successful crewed lunar mission since the early 1960’s during the Apollo missions. NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) Astronaut Jeremy Hansen were the four astronauts aboard Orion
While this mission was not a moon landing, it did break NASA’s record for the farthest traveled spacecraft carrying passengers at 252,756 miles, beating the Apollo 13’s record by 4,101 miles. Additionally, The Artemis II crew had about 60 percent more cabin space than the Apollo 13 crew had.
Tensions within and outside the craft were high during takeoff, as the astronauts were ejected from the atmosphere with the awareness that the Orion would still need improvement in the future. By around the six-hour mark, the crew was already experiencing the first of two complications, one of which could have been very serious.
The less life-threatening of the two was the toilet’s inability to dispose of waste adequately, a problem that was swiftly taken care of by astronaut Christina Koch, the self-appointed “space plumber.”
The most concerning defect in the spacecraft was a leak in the service module. The service module in Orion was deemed the “powerhouse” of the craft by NASA. It supplied electricity, propulsion, thermal control and water for the mission. The leak was found in the propulsion system which thankfully did not affect the performance of the Orion, however that problem did worsen throughout the flight beyond what NASA had initially predicted.
Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator said there would be “extensive redesign” of the valve system for future Orion flights.
Around a year before blast off, NASA held a contest for designing a zero-gravity indicator for the crew, ultimately landing on eight-year-old Lucas Ye’s design, “Rise.”
The crew splashed down safely back on Earth on Apr. 11, bringing with them new photographs of both Earth and the moon.
The Artemis II was a trial mission that would soon lay the groundwork for increasingly ambitious astronomical feats. NASA intends to use Artemis missions in the future for things like further lunar research, economic gain, establishing a lasting human presence on the moon, and even getting a crew to mars. In the coming years, NASA intends to put out Artemis III through V, the last two being predicted for 2028 with the objective of a lunar landing. Following these increasingly challenging flights, NASA will likely set its official sights on Mars. Billions of years ago, Mars lost its protective magnetic field, allowing the sun’s viscous flares to devour its surface. However, prior to these events, scientists have reason to believe that Mars once looked like earth. NASA has confidence in the discoveries and developments the Artemis missions will bring in the coming years.
Article by Penny Deitz