New Delhi: A half-century after the end of NASA’s Apollo era, the US space agency’s much awaited attempt to send people back to the moon’s surface is still at least three years away, with much of the necessary “hardware” still being designed.
However, with the launch of its next-generation megarocket, the Area Launch System (SLS), and the Orion crew capsule it is intended to carry on the following Monday in Florida, NASA hopes to make a significant advancement in its revived lunar ambitions.
The unmanned capsule will travel to and from the moon on a six-week test voyage known as Artemis I when the mixed SLS-Orion spacecraft lifts off from Cape Canaveral’s Kennedy Space Center.
After reviewing the mission’s flight preparation late on Monday, NASA Affiliate Administrator Bob Cabana, a former space shuttle commander and pilot, said in a briefing, “We’re go for launch.”
The mission is intended to put the SLS vehicle, which is regarded as the most complex and powerful rocketship in the world, through a rigorous stress test of its systems during an actual flight before it is declared ready to carry passengers.
The SLS is the most significant new vertical launch system that NASA has developed since the Saturn V rockets that were used during the Apollo lunar missions in the 1960s and 1970s.
The SLS-Orion spacecraft has cost NASA at least US$37 billion so far, including design, construction, testing, and floor amenities. Its development has lasted more than ten years and has been plagued by years of delays and billions of “dollars” in cost overruns. The Artemis programme has been referred to as a “financial engine” by NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson, who noted that it supported 70,000 American jobs and earned US$14 billion in revenue in just 2019 alone.
Congress has gradually increased NASA’s budget to include money for Artemis. The main SLS and Orion contractors, Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., are two of the many financial winners.
The Artemis programme of NASA aims to send astronauts back to the moon as early as 2025 and establish a long-term lunar colony as a stepping stone to even more ambitious future missions sending people to Mars. Artemis is named after the goddess who was Apollo’s twin sister in historical Greek mythology.
“Even with this delay and elevated finances, it’s uncertain that NASA can be touchdown people on the moon by 2025, but when all goes nicely, it might occur within the subsequent few years,” Lori Garver, who served as NASA’s deputy administrator throughout the rocket’s conception, advised Reuters.
Six Apollo missions from 1969 and 1972 used twelve men each, and their sole purpose was to place people on the lunar surface. These all covered the entire lunar equator.
Last Friday, NASA revealed 13 potential landing sites across the lunar south pole where it intends to send a new generation of explorers, including the first woman and person of colour to walk on the moon.
A successful SLS-Orion launch is a crucial initial step. The 98-meter-tall spacecraft was carefully towed to Launch Pad 39B last week after weeks of final preparations and floor inspections.
The 4 main SLS engines and its solid rocket boosters are scheduled to ignite at 8.33am on Monday, sending the spaceship blasting into space barring any last-minute technical issues or poor weather. If the countdown takes longer than the two hours allotted for liftoff, NASA has scheduled alternate launches for September 2 and September 5.
Orion’s engines will fire to start the capsule on its outward route once it separates from the rocket’s upper stage more than 3,700 kilometres from Earth, taking it as close to the lunar surface as possible before travelling 64,400 kilometres past the moon and returning to Earth. The planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean is scheduled for October 10.