March 24, 2023 - NASA on Youtube has the story. The Artemis II Moon Rocket is Coming Together, a high honor for some space explorers, and an intriguing find for the Webb Space Telescope - a few of the stories to tell you about - This Week at NASA!
NASA certainly reached a big milestone in moon rocket assembly.
The agency's crewed Artemis 2 mission, which will launch to the moon as soon as 2024, will use a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage that is nearly ready, an update from NASA officials(opens in new tab) indicated on Tuesday (March 21). The core stage is now indeed fully assembled, (aside from its four RS-25 engines, which will be popped on shortly).
On April 3, NASA will name the 3 Americans and 1 Canadian that will fly around the moon for the first crewed mission to Earth's nearest neighbor since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Artemis 2 follows on from the successful Artemis 1, which really sent an uncrewed Orion capsule to lunar orbit and back late last year.
Rolls-Royce has received funding from the UK Space Agency to develop a nuclear reactor for a Moon base.
The project will look into how nuclear power could be used to support a future base on the Moon for astronauts.
Scientists and engineers at the British company are working on the micro-reactor programme to develop technology that will provide power needed for humans to live and work on Earth’s natural satellite.
All space missions depend on a power source, to support systems for communications, life-support and science experiments.
Experts suggest nuclear power could potentially dramatically increase the length of lunar missions.
The UK Space Agency has announced £2.9m of new funding for the project, which will deliver an initial demonstration of a lunar modular nuclear reactor.
This comes after a £249,000 study funded by the UK Space Agency in 2022.
Science minister George Freeman said: "Space exploration is the ultimate laboratory for so many of the transformational technologies we need on Earth: from materials to robotics, nutrition, cleantech and much more."
"As we prepare to see humans return to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, we are backing exciting research like this lunar modular reactor with Rolls-Royce to pioneer new power sources for a lunar base."
"Partnerships like this, between British industry, the UK Space Agency and Government are helping to create jobs across our £16 billion Space Tech sector and help ensure the UK continues to be a major force in frontier science."
Rolls-Royce plans to have a reactor ready to send to the Moon by 2029.
Artemis II is the first crewed flight test on the agency’s path to establishing a long-term scientific and human presence on the lunar surface.
NASA and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) will announce during an event at 11 a.m. EDT (10 a.m. CDT) on Monday, April 3, from NASA Johnson Space Center’s Ellington Field in Houston, the four astronauts who will venture around the Moon. Traveling aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft during Artemis II, the mission is the first crewed flight test on the agency’s path to establishing a long-term scientific and human presence on the lunar surface.
The event will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
Media are invited to attend the event and speak with the astronauts about their assignments. Other experts working on Artemis missions also will be available. Additional opportunities to interview crew remotely will be available on Tuesday, April 4.
International media wishing to attend must contact NASA no later than 5 p.m. CDT Friday, March 17. U.S. media must contact NASA no later than 5 p.m. Monday, March 27. Media can RSVP to the Johnson newsroom by calling 281-483-5111 or emailing: jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov.
Artemis II is the first crewed mission aboard NASA’s foundational human deep space capabilities: the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and the ground systems needed to launch them. The approximately 10-day mission will test and stress the Orion spacecraft’s life-support systems to prove the capabilities and techniques required to live and work in deep space in ways only humans can do.
The crew will include three NASA astronauts and one CSA astronaut, demonstrating the agency’s commitment to international partnerships through the Artemis program. Artemis II builds on the successful Artemis I flight test, which launched an uncrewed Orion, atop the SLS rocket, on a 1.4 million-mile journey beyond the Moon to test systems before astronauts fly aboard the systems on a mission to the Moon.
Learn more about Artemis at:
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis/
Below are some definitions of the space mission:
Artemis 2 (officially Artemis II) is the second scheduled mission of NASA's Artemis program, and the first scheduled crewed mission of NASA's Orion spacecraft, currently planned to be launched by the Space Launch System (SLS) in November 2024. The crewed Orion spacecraft will perform a lunar flyby test and return to Earth. Artemis 2 is planned to be the first crewed spacecraft to travel to the Moon, or beyond low Earth orbit, since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Originally designated so-called Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2), the mission was intended to collect samples from a captured asteroid in lunar orbit by the now canceled robotic Asteroid Redirect Mission; it was renamed after the introduction of the Artemis program. The mission is also planned to be the first crewed launch from LC-39B since STS-116.
The Artemis 2 mission plan objective is to send four astronauts in the first crewed Orion MPCV Spacecraft into a lunar flyby for a maximum of 21 days using the Block 1 variant of the Space Launch System. The mission profile is a multi-trans lunar injection (MTLI), or multiple departure burns, and includes a free return trajectory from the Moon. The Orion spacecraft will be sent to a high Earth orbit with a period of roughly 42 hours. During this time the crew will perform various checkouts of the spacecraft's life support systems as well as an in-space rendezvous and proximity operations demonstration using the spent Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) as a target. When Orion reaches perigee once again, it will fire its main engine to complete the TLI maneuver which will send it to a lunar free return trajectory, before returning to planet Earth.
Take a look at how NASA Plans To Build The First Moon Base. The Youtube video is interesting.
A moonbase is a facility on the surface of the Moon, enabling human activity on the Moon. Moonbases can be for robotic or human use, in both cases not necessarily including lunar habitation facilities. A base might be a step towards so-called colonization of planets.
Missions to the Moon have so far realized only temporary single-mission bases, (Tranquility Base being the first), as well as some really small permanent installations. Plans for establishing facilities on the Moon that could enable sustained human activity at the Moon have been proposed and are actively pursued nationally and increasingly internationally by various space agencies.
United States concepts:
USA has NASA lunar outpost concepts. The USA has run several attempts to design and in some cases develop lunar outposts and the needed missions, the first being from 1959, with the upcoming Artemis missions being the most advanced.
The current Artemis Program is interessting. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration of United States (NASA) requested an increase in the 2020 budget of $1.6 billion in order to make another crewed mission around the Moon in 2024, followed by a sustained presence on the Moon by 2028. NASA is ready to announce plans to bring together Commercial Human Lander Awards for Artemis Missions on the Moon. This specific program, "The Artemis Program," encompasses NASA's overview for lunar exploration plans. This announcement will go over the first in a series of many more to come complex missions. Artemis I started the program as an uncrewed flight test to demonstrate the capabilities of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft on November 16, 2022. The first flight with a crew will be Artemis II, closely followed by Artemis III that will land crew on the moon in 2025 using a new commercially procured Human Landing System (HLS), chosen to be Starship HLS. They hope to develop a sustainable intereting lunar exploration program starting from 2028.
Chinese concepts:
The so-called International Lunar Research Station is an interesting idea. In 2020, China proposed the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), a somewhat similar proposal to the Moon Village, with Roscosmos and ESA showing interest. The first steps toward establishing the ILRS will be taken through Phase IV of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, consisting of Chang'e 6, 7, and 8, as well as the Russian missions, Luna 25, 26, and 27. Long-term robotic and short-term crew missions at the ILRS are expected to begin in the early 2030s. Roscosmos signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the creation of the ILRS with CNSA on March 9, 2021. There is really a projected timeline stretching from the 2030s to 2045.
Russian concepts:
The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) has planned a fully robotic exciting lunar base called Lunny Poligon. The project was planned for 2020, with an expected completion date of 2037. On March 9, 2021, Russia turned to cooperate with China and signed a memorandum of understanding for the joint construction of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).
