After orbiting the moon for about 25 days, NASA's Orion spacecraft will touch down in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, putting the Artemis I mission on a path to success.
It's too early to declare Artemis I a complete success (two of the mission's top priorities come with the landing), but the mission has already helped NASA prepare for its ultimate goal of returning humans to the moon and eventually sending humans to Mars.
"The mission is on track. We're on track to have a fully successful mission, with some extra milestones we've accomplished along the way," Artemis I mission manager Mike Sarafin told reporters Thursday.
See also: NASA: Astronauts to Grow Tomatoes in Space
The Artemis I mission launched on November 16, sending the unmanned Orion spacecraft into orbit around the moon to test NASA’s deep space exploration systems.
At its farthest point, Orion was 268,563 miles from Earth, surpassing the distance reached by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970.
The spacecraft is now on track to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and land near Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. At that point, the Artemis I mission will have accomplished its ultimate goal: to demonstrate that Orion’s heat shield can withstand the high speed and heat of lunar reentry.
When Orion returns, it will be traveling at about 24,500 miles per hour and will experience half the temperature of the sun outside the heat shield.
On Sunday, NASA will carry out its third priority : recovering Orion after splashdown. NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems ( EGS ) recovery team is working with the U.S. Navy to recover the spacecraft. The recovery team departed San Diego for the Artemis I splashdown site on Nov. 7 and is currently at sea. They plan to arrive at the landing site 24 hours ahead of splashdown. NASA originally intended to land off the coast of San Diego, California. But there were a number of factors that went into choosing the landing site, Sarafin said. These included the spacecraft’s design limitations, safety concerns for the recovery operation, test objectives related to imagery, discarded objects and the parachute deployment sequence. A cold front is moving through Southern California, however, making conditions less than ideal. Light rain is expected on Sunday, along with winds that will create waves. As a result, the landing point has been moved south by 300 nautical miles.
NASA is using a “skip entry” maneuver to bring Orion back to Earth, a new technique that allows NASA to land the spacecraft off the west coast of North America. Using this technique, astronauts on future Artemis missions will experience about 4Gs at peak acceleration, similar to what astronauts experience returning from low Earth orbit.
Once Orion hits the water, it will remain there for about two hours while NASA completes various tests, such as determining how much heat was generated in the capsule and how it will affect the capsule’s interior.
During that time, the recovery team will recover the discarded items before they sink, as well as conduct its own tests on Orion before pulling it aboard.
While the landing will take care of the first and third priorities of the Artemis I mission, it remains to take care of the second:demonstrating the spacecraft's functions and flight modes.
This process began during the flight itself, when NASA teams collected a huge amount of data about Orion's communication, propulsion and navigation systems.
See also: Samsung launches Good Lock in other countries
It is worth noting that NASA has already downloaded 140GB of engineering data and images and is analyzing them.
Once Orion safely returns to Earth, NASA will be able to retrieve more data recorded inside the spacecraft. Then, some components, such as some electronics boxes, will be refurbished for the Artemis II mission.
The Artemis II mission, which NASA plans to launch in 2024, will send four astronauts on a flight around the moon.
Information source: zdnet.com
