Project Artemis and the return to the Moon: NASA's plans

The Artemis program is named after the goddess of the moon in Greek mythology. The program will be based on three components, a small space station that will attack the moon called Lunar Getaway, the SLS launcher (Space Launch System) and a manned spacecraft that will attach to the space station - Orion

3 months ago in March 2019, US Vice President Mike Pence announced that the US is preparing to resume manned flights to the moon by 2024. The impression is that this will be a big comeback. These are not short flights like the Apollo flights, but to establish a permanent settlement, a colony. The name of the program is Project Artemis, named after the goddess of the moon in Greek mythology. The program will be based on three components, a small space station that will attack the moon called Lunar Getaway, the SLS launcher (Space Launch System) and a manned spacecraft that will attach to the space station - the Orion, whose development has been underway for years, even before The announcement of its possible use for flights to the moon.

The space station will be built using a modular method like the space station orbiting the Earth. Optionally, there is a possibility to enlarge the station beyond the current expectations. This will of course cause weighty engineering problems such as the location of the center of gravity and vibrations when connecting the additional units. In terms of its operation, it will have an international character, the US partners in its construction and operation will be commercial entities and countries, and in terms of the nature of its activity, it will be used for manned and unmanned studies of the moon and an important step towards flights to Mars. Apart from the USA, entities such as the European Space Agency, the Russian Space Agency and the Japanese Space Agency will be partners in this project.

The flight path of the space station will have a particularly high eccentricity, the lowest point from the lunar surface 930 km and the highest 43,000 km. The duration of the moon's cycle in this case is very large - 6.5 days. Such an orbit will allow spacecraft to be removed from the space station to reach a low lunar orbit in half a day.

The decision on the final design of the lunar space station has not yet been made. One of the options is shown here. This space station has two base units, its energy source is solar collectors and it is designed for 3 astronauts. On its left side, a lunar lander is connected to it, which is a joint project of the USA and the European Space Agency. From above, the Russian spacecraft "Federation" (the one that is supposed to replace the Soyuz spacecraft) is connected to it, and on the right, the new American spacecraft "Orion" is connected to it. Also attached to the space station is a supply spacecraft and a spherical connection unit that will allow for the attachment of additional modular units in the future.

The SLS launcher will be NASA's flagship launcher. In its advanced stages of development, it will be able to carry a load of 130 tons. For comparison, Saturn 5 could put into orbit around the Earth a payload of 120 tons and a weight of 45 tons to the Moon. That was the weight of the Apollo spacecraft. This launcher will be based largely on the Space Shuttle, the Space Shuttle's engines and boosters. The boosters will actually be the upgraded boosters that were attached to the fuel tank of the space shuttle and those engines that were installed in the shuttle. The first stage will be based on the space shuttle's huge fuel tank. There is actually nothing new here, ground-breaking technologies, but building on something existing and introducing improvements into it.

The manned spacecraft that, as mentioned, will serve the USA in this framework is the Orion. The diameter of its base is 5 meters. It is built from the two units of the command cell and the service cell. The height of the control room is 3.3 meters. The weight of the command cabin is 10,387 kg and of the service cabin: 15,461 kg. It can have up to 4 astronauts. The command cabin looks like the command cabin of the Apollo spacecraft, in terms of dimensions it is larger. This spaceship is therefore more spacious and later it is supposed to fly astronauts to Mars as well. In the service compartment, as at the same time as in the Apollo spacecraft, the spacecraft engines are located. Solar collectors used as an energy source for the spacecraft. The attachment mechanism is such that it can connect to different types of spacecraft. On the face of it, it is likely that in the future it will be possible to attach a lander to the command cabin that will land on the moon. It is therefore possible that when the spacecraft arrives at the lunar space station, the lander will detach from it and descend to the lunar surface. The spacecraft itself will connect to the lunar space station. At the end of the lunar mission, the lander will take off, the spacecraft will detach from the space station, connect to the lander and both will return to Earth. Each one will land separately and then they will be reused.

More of the topic in Hayadan:

• NASA selects the initial commercial lunar landing services for the Artemis program
• The Moongate satellite - one of the components of the Artemis program - will be purchased from a private company
• A small step, a big leap, and the destiny of man