Artemis 2 is the name of the NASA mission that will send the first woman to the Moon. The Artemis project is a space program developed by NASA and backed by several space organizations, including the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). And its principal objective is to create the basis for sending the next generation of humanity to the Moon and then Mars.
Artemis 1
Artemis 1, which will be responsible for testing the provisional cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) and the Orion module around the Moon.
ARTEMIS 2
Artemis 2 is the second stage of the Artemis project and will involve a series of human-crewed Orion spacecraft trips. In this mission, astronauts will prepare for the establishment of a lunar base by subsequent missions.
MISSION
Artemis 2 represents the second phase of the Artemis project. Its launch date will be contingent on Artemis 1, and its primary purpose will be to deliver to the moon instruments and astronauts who will make preparations for the safe arrival of people. The mission’s launch will be identical to that of Artemis 1, with a Space Launch System (SLS) carrying the preliminary cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) and the Orion spacecraft carrying four passengers. The SLS will disconnect and return to Earth once it reaches the Earth’s orbit. Hydrogen and Oxygen-based fuel will be utilized by the ICPS to propel the Orion spacecraft to the Moon. Unlike Artemis 1, which mostly used the Earth’s gravitational help to drive itself to the Moon, Artemis 2 will use just ICPS fuel to depart Earth as quickly as possible in order to prevent the crew from spending too much time within the Van Allen belts.
VAN ALLEN BELTS
The Van Allen belts are two ring-shaped regions around the Earth where excessive radiation concentrations can be hazardous to life. The Orion spacecraft will be coated with a double layer of aluminum infused with Kevlar to protect astronauts from harmful radiation (The material used in the anti-water beak echo shawls). Engineers at NASA determined that two thin layers of protection provide superior protection compared to a single thick one. This protects them from radiation and hits from meteorites and space junk. A small fraction of radioactive particles are able to breach the ship’s defenses and enter the astronauts’ bodies despite this.
However, they are extremely low radiation levels. If a human is exposed to it for a very long time (more than 10 hours), it will cause irreversible harm to the body, eventually resulting in cancer or aplastic anemia. To avoid this, astronauts must spend the shortest amount of time feasible within the Van Allen belts. Thus, the Orion spacecraft will pass the Van Allen belts in no more than two hours, which is an entirely feasible amount of time. Once the spacecraft has passed beyond the danger zone, the engines can be turned off and the spacecraft will be propelled solely by the Moon’s interisland gravitational attraction, with only minor direction modifications requiring the use of the engines.
ON THE MOON
As soon as the crew reaches the Moon, they will begin investigating the lunar surface, completing a series of orbits, and gaining access to the Moon’s most isolated region, the dark side. As you are aware, the Moon always has a side towards the Earth because the time it takes to revolve on the Earth is the same as the time it takes to rotate on itself. This phenomenon is known as “Tidal Coupling,” and it has been found in extrasolar planets and other solar system bodies. From the windows of the Orion spacecraft, astronauts will be able to glimpse the far side of the Moon and the Earth as the enormous, brilliant blue sphere that gave birth to humanity. During their stay in lunar orbit, astronauts will investigate the landscape, particularly in the Moon’s southern hemisphere, to find the optimal landing site for future missions.
WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MOON’S SOUTH?
In contrast to the Apollo missions, which landed near the equator of the Moon in order to maintain regular communication with Earth, the Artemis program has established landing in the south pole. NASA has the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a 2.5-meter-diameter reflecting telescope installed on a Boeing 74 7SP aircraft modified to examine space from Earth’s stratosphere, allowing it to exceed 99% of Earth’s atmospheric layer, a position from which it can obtain solar system data not possible with terrestrial telescopes. NASA scientists identified enormous frozen water stores in the vast, cold, and deep craters of the Moon’s polar regions after conducting a comprehensive analysis of SOFIA’s data and observations.
In addition, they discovered that in the South Polar region where the Lunar Prospect mission discovered water in the late 1990s, there are smaller, shallower depressions that may be frigid enough to store water for thousands or millions of years. If it is planned to create the first lunar base, water will be essential to this endeavor. If future missions are able to retrieve these frozen water supplies at the poles and use them to suit human requirements, it will be a tremendous leap for the expansion of humanity’s usage of solar system resources.
Artemis 2 crew will examine the terrain alongside the artificial satellite moon reconnaissance orbiter, which has already delivered geographic data on the lunar topography and craters. This will help them decide the safest and most stable landing site on the moon, as well as the craters with the greatest potential for containing water reservoirs. After spending four days orbiting the Moon and conducting the necessary research to select the moon landing site, the astronauts’ mission will be complete, and they will return to Earth.
RETURN TRIP
During the one-way journey to the Moon, the ICPS would have expended a great deal of fuel to exit the Van Allen belts as rapidly as possible. As a result, it is likely that the astronauts do not have enough fuel to drive the spacecraft to high speeds and shorten their stay in space. The first is that ICPS has sufficient water, food, and oxygen supplies for astronauts to remain in space for up to three weeks. The astronauts will be able to return home using only the gravitational attraction force. Once they reach Earth’s orbit, the ICPS will detach, and the Orion spacecraft will enter the planet’s atmosphere for a safe landing, exactly as Artemis 1 did.
NEXT MISSIONS
The conclusion of the human-crewed mission is now official. However, Artemis 2 also considers deploying essential tools and equipment for the Moon landing. The subsequent missions will transport more than 100 kilograms of equipment that will be used by future astronauts to collect lunar samples, conduct soil surveys and monitoring, and fix anything that will deteriorate. A crucial piece of equipment for astronauts will be a pressurized rover, similar to the one used by Apollo 17 crew, to move over the lunar surface more swiftly and look for water deposits in lunar craters across a broader region. Artemis 2 will also be responsible for leaving a variety of instruments on the Moon that astronauts will use to conduct chemical tests and identify the surface minerals. And finally, the GATEWAY, one of the most vital pieces of equipment for the Artemis Project.
GATEWAY
The Gateway will be an outpost in lunar orbit that will provide essential support for a long-term human return to the lunar surface and serve as a staging area for deep space exploration. It is a vital component of the Artemis program of NASA. As with the International Space Station, the Gateway will continue to orbit the Moon, serving as an obligatory stop for all future astronauts intending to land. As a result, NASA has prioritized the development of Gateway on three key critical features required for the moon landing:
- Power and propulsion
- HALO
- Logistics skills
1. force and propulsion component
The Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) is a 60-kilowatt solar-electric spaceship designed to provide the Gateway with power, high-speed communications, attitude control, and orbital transfer capabilities. It will be a crucial component for sending spacecraft to the lunar surface and returning people safely to Earth.
2. Residential and Logistical Outpost (HALO)
The (HALO) will serve as the initial crew cabin for Gateway visitors. Its principal purpose is to provide basic life support for visiting astronauts as they prepare to descend to the lunar surface after arriving from Earth. It will give the Orion spacecraft and its crew with command, control, data management capabilities, energy storage, power distribution, thermal control, communications, tracking capabilities, environmental control, and life support systems. In addition, it will include many docking ports for visiting vehicles and future modules, as well as room for science and storage. It will also have a comparable design to the International Space Station (ISS) to facilitate astronaut adaptation to its systems.
3. Logistics in space
As astronauts prepare for missions to the lunar surface, they will require the delivery of pressurized and guaranteed crucial cargo, scientific experiences, and supplies including sample collection materials and other goods. NASA announced SpaceX as its first commercial supplier in the United States in March 2020. Under the terms of the logistics services contract with Gateway, transport goods and other supplies to Gateway. Every crewed Artemis trip to the Gateway is scheduled to receive logistics services. This will ensure that humans can remain on the Moon for an extended period of time by providing a regular supply of equipment and resources.
EVERYTHING READY FOR ARTEMIS 3
Humans have not visited the Moon in over half a century. The human race has always possessed an insatiable need to explore the globe, an innate need to learn new things and test our limitations. The Artemis mission is much more than just returning to the Moon. It is not enough to construct a base and use the natural resources of our natural satellite. It is considerably more than that. It is a reason to join forces, a purpose for nations to work together to attain a common objective; it is the highest manifestation of human ambition and the urge to go beyond. The Artemis 2 missions will be the ones that prepare everything for the arrival of the next generation of lunar-bound astronauts. The success of this phase is crucial not only for the Artemis project, but also for all of humanity. This is where the future will be seeded, the next step on the ladder of history, and we will be the architects of it.
