Nasa launches giant Artemis 1 rocket to moon
MISSION AIMS TO PUT MAN BACK ON THE LUNAR SURFACE 50 YEARS AFTER APOLLO
With a dash of launch-pad heroics and 4 million kg of thrust, Nasa’s colossal new rocket soared into space for the first time yesterday, sending a next-generation capsule on a crewless voyage around the moon and back 50 years after the final Apollo lunar mission.
The US space agency’s muchdelayed and anticipated launch from Florida kicked off Apollo’s successor programme, Artemis, aimed at returning astronauts to the lunar surface this decade and establishing a sustainable base there as a stepping stone to future human exploration of Mars.
Trail of fire
The 32-storey-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket blasted off from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre at 1.47 am EST (10.47am UAE time), piercing the blackness over Cape Canaveral with a reddish-orange trail of fire as crowds of spectators cheered and screamed.
“Today, we got to witness the world’s most powerful rocket take the Earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it. And it was quite a sight,” Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin told a post-launch Nasa briefing, using words from biblical scripture.
The launch was not without drama. About four hours before blastoff, crews had to deal with a flurry of issues including a leaky fuel valve. Quick work by a special “red team”, who tightened a loose connection on the launch pad well inside the “blast zone” demarcated around a nearly fully fuelled rocket, was credited with saving the launch.
Artemis I, Nasa’s first mission to the Moon in 50 years since the Apollo programme, has blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The uncrewed capsule is on a 25-day skyward mission to orbit the Moon and return safely to Earth next month. The Orion capsule will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and splashdown on December 11 in the Pacific Ocean — off the coast of San Diego, California.
As the most powerful rocket sent into the space in nearly 50 years, Nasa said it is the first time that its Space Launch System (SLS) and spacecraft (Orion) fly together. The programme is aimed at bringing humanity to the Moon and further space exploration.
“#Artemis I begins a new chapter in human lunar exploration,” Nasa announced on Twitter.
The Artemis II mission, scheduled for 2024, will take four astronauts on an identical journey around the Moon and back. Artemis III will put astronauts down on the surface of the Moon in a landmark mission, near the lunar south pole around 2025.
Nasa had to scrub initial attempts at launch following technical issues with one of the four RS-25 engines. This followed two hurricanes and two months of technical fixes before the US space agency gave the “go” to proceed with the launch of the high-profile mission that was decades in the making.
Artemis I — currently on course for the Earth’s natural satellite — will journey to the farthest point a spacecraft designed for humans has ever ventured. Nasa plans to build a small Gateway space station in the lunar orbit — in future — and use the Moon as a testing ground for coming human missions to Mars.
Man returns to Moon
Fifty-three years after humans first walked on the surface of the Moon, Nasa’s ambitious Artemis programme aims to return humans to the lunar surface. Artemis I, marks the inaugural flight of both the SLS rocket and the Orion crew capsule. And it kicks off Nasa’s multi-mission Artemis programme, which is focused on sending astronauts, including the first woman and the first person of colour, back to the Moon’s surface in the next three years.
The SLS, built by Boeing Co., is meant to be the primary vehicle that will be used to transport humans to the vicinity of the moon; the Orion crew capsule is built by Lockheed Martin Corp.
Nasa’s next-generation spacecraft has a crew capsule that is 30 per cent more in volume than the Apollo capsule and can sustain a future crew of four for up to 21 days during its initial missions to low lunar orbit. The capsule will travel 1.3 million miles to orbit the Moon. The current mission will include a number of critical and carefully planned manoeuvres.
On July 20, 1969 humans
landed on the Moon for the first time, as part of the Apollo 11 mission. Neil Armstrong, Nasa astronaut, became the first person to walk on the moon. The last of the astronauts to walk on the surface of the moon were from Apollo 17 mission in 1972. A total of 12 astronauts (all Americans) have walked on the surface of the moon till date.
Perhaps nothing lifts the human spirit more than watching humanity rise from earth to above and beyond — in our quest to understand the infinite sea of universe. Nasa’s launch of Artemis reignites that human thirst and curiosity of space and the cosmos.
Why no lunar missions in the last 50 years?
The Apollo 11 Moon landing in July 1969 was a huge feat of human endeavour. It was a moment that the world had been waiting for. Apollo 11 was followed by six further trips to the Moon, five of which landed successfully. The last manned mission to the Moon was Apollo 17, taking place between 7 and 19 December 1972. It was a 12day mission and broke many records, the longest spacewalk, the longest lunar landing and the largest lunar samples brought back to Earth. Harrison H. Schmitt was the lunar module pilot, as well as being a geologist. He was joined by Ronald E. Evans as command module pilot and Eugene Cernan as Mission Commander. But in 1970 future Apollo missions were cancelled. The main reason for this was money. The cost of getting to the Moon was astronomical.