Although it does not include landing, it will be the first time that astronauts take off aboard the rocket Space Launch System inside the Orion capsule, which will orbit the satellite.
The POT announced a new postponement of the missions Artemiswhich will mark the return of humans to the Moon. One of them, called Artemis IIwhich was going to take astronauts into the orbit of the natural satellite, had already been postponed from 2024 to 2025, and now for April 2026. Besides, Artemis III -which will return them to the surface- also underwent changes: mid-2027.
The 10-day Artemis II mission will send four astronauts to the Moon, including Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen. The mission will not include a landing, but it will be the first time astronauts take off aboard the rocket Space Launch System from NASA, inside the Orion crew capsule, which will orbit the Moon before returning to Earth with a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. In the case of Artemis III, humans will return to the surface of the Moonnear its south pole.
The delays, largely due to technical glitches related to astronaut safety
It will follow the unmanned Artemis I mission, which was finally launched in November 2022 after years of delays due to technical difficulties and even some hurricanes. Although it was a success, investigations into a Unexpected carbonization in the Orion capsule’s heat shieldessential to protect astronauts upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, contributed to additional delays.
After an exhaustive analysis, NASA determined that the Orion capsule’s heat shield “did not allow a sufficient amount of the gases generated inside a material called Avcoat to escape,” which caused part of it to escape. will crack and break unexpectedly during the Artemis I mission, instead of gradually wearing out as it heated. Despite the carbonization, temperature sensors indicated that the interior of the Orion capsule remained comfortable and safe for the astronauts.
For Artemis II, NASA engineers decided that the capsule would ”can keep the crew safe during the planned mission with changes to Orion’s trajectory as it enters Earth’s atmosphere” and are preparing the capsule using the heat shield already in place: ”The updates to our mission plans are a positive step to ensure that we can safely meet our objectives on the Moon and develop the technologies and capabilities necessary for manned missions to Mars,” he said. Catherine Koernerassociate administrator of the Exploration Systems Development Missions Directorate.
However, for the more ambitious Artemis III mission, the agency says it is ”implementing improvements to how heat shields are manufactured for manned returns from lunar landing missions”, based on what he learned from Artemis I.
Source: Ambito
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