Artemis 1 is sort of residence, and NASA is readying for the subsequent phases already.
The Orion spacecraft of Artemis 1 is anticipated to splash down within the Pacific Ocean on Sunday (Dec. 11), and the company is already looking forward to future missions of the Artemis program .
“Artemis 1 and Orion have been phenomenal,” Nujoud Merancy, chief of the exploration mission planning workplace at NASA’s Johnson Area Middle, advised Area.com in a video interview. Orion was tasked with flying across the moon to gather information for future crewed missions and so the mission has been performing so properly, with solely minor glitches , that NASA felt snug including extra duties to the manifest.
“The entire level [and] goal of this mission was to validate that we designed the rocket and the spacecraft proper, and it is exceeding expectations to the purpose we had been truly including targets with Orion,” Merancy added.
In images: Artemis 1 launch: Amazing views of NASA’s moon rocket debut
A view of NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft with the moon and Earth within the background (Picture credit score: NASA)
The first goal of the Artemis 1 mission might be finishing the high-speed re-entry and splashdown, which is to this point on observe for Sunday (Dec. 11). The mission additionally achieved different key targets, similar to testing the unflown Space Launch System and flying in a distant retrograde orbit round the moon to evaluate readiness for human occupancy of the Orion spacecraft.
Extra evaluation will come after splashdown to see how properly Orion did, Merancy mentioned. “All the information recorded throughout the mission, the engineers and the groups might be going again by way of it to be sure that it matched our predictions. That is actually the ahead plan.”
When Artemis 2 flies across the moon with astronauts in about 2024, it is going to be a check of Orion’s life support systems as these weren’t included in Artemis 1. The crew has not but been introduced, however the mission design is already accomplished, Merancy mentioned.
Following that would be the first crewed touchdown of the moon, which is anticipated to be in 2025 or so with Artemis 3 , which can start a sequence of excursions to the south pole of the moon together with NASA’s deliberate Gateway space station in orbit.
“There’s simply a lot to do,” Merancy added of the mission planning, however added that the Artemis workforce might be taking a while to have a good time the success of Artemis 1 throughout the splashdown.
“There’s going be a viewing social gathering right here at Johnson, on Sunday, to observe it occur,” Merancy mentioned. “I will be bringing the household, and we’ll be right here to have a good time like everybody else.”
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “ Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab) ?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a e book about space medication. Comply with her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab) . Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab) .
