This will be the first time in over fifty years that a manned spacecraft undertakes a mission that will include flying beyond Low Earth Orbit. The mission that will achieve this is historic because it signals the return to the Moon. The mission that will achieve this goes by the name Artemis II and will happen no earlier than February 6.
The SLS rocket, the most powerful rocket that NASA has ever developed, will be launching the mission from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. The Space Launch System, carrying an Orion spacecraft, is expected to make its ascent up 322 feet of height to the launch pad aboard the crawler-transporter 2, a process expected to take a maximum of 12 hours, tentatively scheduled to happen on or after January 17.
During the Wet Dress Rehearsal, more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants will be loaded onto the rocket; there will be a full countdown and successful off-loading without having the crew on board. In addition, Wet Dress Rehearsal will provide an opportunity for the terminal countdown rehearsals-that stop at key points for readiness checks. A few changes have been incorporated into the routine based on lessons from Artemis I: the liquid hydrogen loading and the gaseous nitrogen fill of the Orion crew module.
The selected team of astronauts to join the crew of the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission includes NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency. These will be joining after the two-day high Earth orbit checkout prior to the trans-lunar injection burn made by the European-built service module of the Orion spacecraft. The trans-lunar injection burn will place the spacecraft into an orbit that provides a free return, where it will go beyond 230,000 miles from Earth and 4,600 miles beyond the Moon.
Artemis II will use the gravity of both the Earth and the Moon to enter an orbit in a manner that minimizes fuel expenditure to return it to Earth. However, before landing in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of San Diego, where awaiting them is the recovery team composed of personnel from NASA as well as DoD, the astronauts must withstand the temperatures and velocities associated with the re-entry of the Earth’s atmosphere.
Although, in the case of Artemis II, a mission would not involve a landing on the Moon, the mission in particular remains very important in the sense that it offers a necessary set of elements required in the Artemis III mission, which would be the first landing mission after 1972. However, for the Artemis III to occur, the mission would also require the presence of an operational human landing system next to the already required presence of an operational docking system attached to the Gateway. The Artemis II mission would also involve international cooperation.
The presence of the Canadian astronaut would also mean that it would be the first mission to the moon for Canada because it has previously supported the Gateway mission using the Canadarm3 robotic arm. The Orion Service Module was manufactured in Bremen in Germany by Airbus Space but was made up of materials from 11 different countries. However, according to NASA officials, the safety of the astronauts will always be the number one priority. “We have important steps remaining on our path to launch, and crew safety will remain our top priority at every turn, as we near humanity’s return to the Moon,” Lori Glaze, the acting associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, was quoted as saying.
Each step rollout, wet dress rehearsal, flight readiness must be completed before we can proceed to the next one. The Artemis II mission would be much more than an orbital flight test since it would mark the beginning of a new era in space exploration. Success of the mission would contribute by demonstrating the vehicle, the spacecraft, and the architecture needed in extending the presence of humans in space to pave the way for the success of the Mars mission and the success of the lunar resource utilization mission. The journey back to the Moon will take a very long time, and it will start with a mission, and a mission will set the course for space travel for generations to come.