Artemis 1: Humanity's Return To The Moon
Human ambition to continue exploring space is unstoppable. NASA has decided it is time to go back to the moon, the first step in a long journey. To achieve that, there's Artemis 1.
Humanity reached the moon in 1969 with an expedition led by Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin. Six missions of the Apollo Program managed to get 12 astronauts to walk on the moon, the last of these was Eugene Cernan in December 1972.
Several decades after the last Apollo mission, it's time for the Artemis program to reach the stars. The final goal now is more ambitious: establish a permanent moon base on its surface and orbi
Lunar colonies
The goal of the Artemis project is to colonize the moon, with important facilities manned from Earth through lunar rovers and with the aid of satellites.
Public agencies and private capital
NASA is not alone in this initiative. It has the partnership of the European Space Agency (ESA), which makes it an international mission. Plus the collaboration of a few private corporations.
ESA's pivotal role
ESA plays a pivotal role, in designing and building the Orion spacecraft, the crewed ship that will fly around the moon, making sure it has oxygen, water, power, and fuel. The European Space Agency will also be in charge of managing six of the ten CubeSat Satellites that will be displayed.
Objective: Mars
The main goal is to set up a moon base that can function as a hub for future crewed missions to Mars, with the expectation for humans to set foot on the red planet by the 2030s.
Blast off!
Right now, the Artemis program is in its early stages, waiting for the launch of Artemis I. Then, NASA's Space Launch System will carry the Orion spacecraft to the moon, where it will fly around the lunar orbit for six days.
SLS (Space Launch System)
The SLS (Space Launch System) is the more modern replacement for the well-known Space Shuttle. It's a NASA expendable launch vehicle 322 ft (ca. 98 m) tall that will carry the Orion spacecraft during Artemis 1 and a planned crewed mission in Artemis 2.
It's exactly rocket science
The Artemis I mission is planned to last a total of 42 days, where it will return to Earth to prepare for Artemis 2, a second trip to the moon expected for 2024 with a human crew.
The spaceship traveling to the moon is set to return and land in the Pacific Ocean, northeast of Hawaii. NASA estimates that it can reach 25,000 miles (ca. 40,234 km) per hour during its atmospheric reentry, making it one of the most critical stages of the mission.
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