NASA has published details about the Artemis III mission, currently scheduled for 2025, which will return astronauts to the Moon, in a region near the South Pole.
“Artemis III will be one of the most complex engineering and human ingenuity undertakings in the history of deep space exploration to date,” the agency said in a statement.
Four astronauts will depart from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Space Launch System (SLS). The crew will be selected from among the most diverse astronaut corps in history, each gifted with unique abilities and intensely trained.
EFirst, the crew will launch into Earth orbit, where they will perform systems checks and adjustments to Orion’s solar arrays. Next, a powerful boost from the SLS’s intermediate cryogenic propulsion stage will help Orion perform a translunar injection maneuver, heading for the Moon.
Over several days, the crew will travel to the Moon and perform corrective engine burns to intercept the lunar gravitational field. At the right time and place, Orion will perform a series of two engine activations to place the spacecraft into a near-rectilinear halo lunar orbit (NRHO). Out of hundreds of potential orbits, NASA selected the NRHO to achieve Artemis’s long-term goals. NRHO will provide near-constant communications with Earth and access to sites all over the Moon. Being gravitationally balanced between the Earth and the Moon, this orbit will maximize fuel efficiency. In future missions, NASA and its partners will assemble the Gateway lunar space station at NRHO to serve as the operations center for Artemis missions.
land me
NASA has selected SpaceX to provide the human landing system that will transport the Artemis III astronauts from Orion in lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon and back.
SpaceX plans to use a unique concept of operations to increase the overall efficiency of its lander. Following a series of tests, SpaceX will carry out at least one uncrewed demonstration mission in which the Starship will land on the lunar surface. When the Starship has met all of NASA’s requirements and its high crew safety standards, it will be ready for its first Artemis mission.
Prior to the crew’s launch, SpaceX will launch a storage depot into Earth orbit. A series of reusable tankers will transport propellant to the storage depot to fuel the human landing system. The Starship’s uncrewed human landing system will then launch into Earth orbit and rendezvous with the storage depot to fill its tanks before executing a translunar injection engine burn and traveling approximately six days to NRHO, where will wait for the crew of the Artemis III.
Two on lunar soil
When both ships arrive at NRHO, Orion will dock with the Starship’s human landing system in preparation for the first expedition to the lunar surface of the 21st century. Once the crew and their supplies are ready, two astronauts will board the Starship and two will remain on Orion. Orion will undock and move away from the Starship to remain at NRHO for about one orbit of the Moon, which will take about 6.5 days. This will coincide with the duration of the expedition to the surface, so that when Orion completes its orbit, the two-person crew will finish their work on the surface in time to rejoin the spacecraft.
NASA has its sights set on locations around the South Pole for the Artemis era of human lunar exploration. The extreme and contrasting conditions make it a difficult place for Earthlings to land, live and work, but the region’s unique features promise unprecedented scientific discoveries in deep space. Using advanced technology, including autonomous systems, the Starship crew will land at a carefully selected location within a 100-meter radius.
After landing, the first task of the surface crew will be to ensure that all systems are ready for their stay on the lunar surface. They will then rest, eat and recharge for the first full day of the expedition.
Field work
During their stay on the Moon, the astronauts will carry out scientific work inside the Starship and will carry out a series of lunar walks, leaving the Starship to explore the surface. The astronauts will don advanced space suits, exit through an airlock, and descend in the Starship’s elevator. NASA has selected Axiom Space to supply the Artemis III surface suits and spacewalk systems. These suits will give astronauts greater range of motion and flexibility to explore more of the landscape than on previous lunar missions.
During their moonwalks, astronauts will take photos and videos, study geology, recover samples, and collect other data to meet specific science goals. The view from the lunar South Pole region will be very different from photos taken on the Apollo missions in the equatorial region of the Moon. The Sun will be just above the horizon, casting long, dark shadows on the terrain, which the crew will explore using headlamps and navigation tools. The information and materials collected by the Artemis III astronauts will increase our understanding of the mysterious region of the South Pole, of the Moon, and of our solar system.
Mission control teams on the ground will be in contact with the crew as they relay what they see, hear and feel. With mission coverage and the ability to send high-quality images and video to the ground with advanced communication technology, they will share a unique new human experience with the world.
When their expedition to the surface is complete, the two astronauts will lift off from the surface of the Moon and return to NRHO on the Starship to join their crewmates on Orion. Following docking, the crew will spend up to five days in orbit, transferring samples between the vehicles and preparing for the return trip to Earth.
When they reach the optimal NRHO starting point, with all four astronauts back in Orion, they will undock and ignite Orion’s engines, launching the spacecraft past the Moon and allowing it to move toward Earth. The crew will travel at about 40,000 kilometers per hour during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Assisted by 11 parachutes, the ship will fall into the Pacific Ocean, where it will be recovered along with its crew with the help of the United States Coast Guard and Navy./Europa Press