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 return in a big way. These are not short flights in the style of the Apollo flights, but to establish a permanent settlement, a colony. The name of the program is Project Artemis on The name of 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 And its name is Lunar Getaway, the SLS (Space Launch System) launcher and a manned spacecraft that will attach to the space station - it is 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's 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 United States, partners in this project will be bodies such as the European Space Agency, the Space Agency Russian and the Japanese space agency.

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 is attached to it a lunar lander which is a joint project of the USA and the European Space Agency. On top is attached to it the Russian spacecraft "Federation" (the one that is supposed to replace the Soyuz spacecraft) and on the right side is attached to it the new American spacecraft "Orion". Also attached to the space station are a supply spacecraft and a unit A spherical connection that will allow 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. Its base diameter is 5 meters. It is made up of two units: the command cabin and the service cabin. The height of the command cabin is 3.3 meters. The weight of the command cabin is 10,387 kg and of the service cabin: 15,461 kg "C. There can be up to 4 astronauts in it. The command cabin looks like the command cabin of the Apollo spacecraft, in terms of dimensions it is This spaceship is therefore more spacious and it is supposed to fly astronauts to Mars at the same time as the spaceship's engines are used as a source of energy that in the future it will be possible to attach a lander to the command cabin that will land on the moon The lunar lander will detach from it and descend to the lunar surface. At the end of the lunar mission, the lander will detach from the space station, and both will land separately and then they will be used again.

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