NASA's Artemis I Mission : Daily Current Affairs

Date: 29/08/2022

Relevance: GS-3: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Key Phrases: NASA, Artemis I, Orion, Moon’s surface, Trajectory, Astronauts, ARTEMIS Programme, Sun’s radiation, Artemis 2, Artemis 3, Crewed Moon landing mission, Space Launch System rocket(SLS), Chandrayaan Mission, Chandrayaan-3, ISRO, Lunar Polar Exploration Mission, JAXA, Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Why in News?

NASA tests new moon rocket, 50 years after Apollo. The 322-foot rocket will lift off from Kennedy Space Centre on 29th August.

Context:

The American space agency NASA has rolled out its giant new Moon rocket to prepare it for a maiden flight.
After separating from SLS (Space Launch System), the capsule will deploy solar arrays and begin a multi-day journey to the moon – departing from Earth’s orbit.
NASA plans to fly Orion as close as 60 miles above the moon’s surface, before moving into a wide orbit around the lunar body.
Artemis I will travel about 1.3 million miles over the course of 42 days, spanning several phases.
To return, Orion will use the moon’s gravity to assist it in setting a trajectory back into Earth’s orbit.
Orion is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean – off the coast of San Diego, California – where a team of NASA and Department of Defense personnel will recover the capsule.

NASA’s ARTEMIS Programme

ARTEMIS means Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of Moon’s Interaction with the Sun.
It is NASA’s next mission to the Moon.
With the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024.
It has three ongoing missions:
- Artemis 1, an uncrewed test flight around and beyond the Moon, launching 29 August 2022.
- Artemis 2, a crewed flight beyond the Moon will take humans the farthest they’ve ever been in space.
- Artemis 3, a mission that will land the first female astronaut and first astronaut of colour on the Moon to spend a week performing scientific studies on the lunar surface.
Artemis 3 will be the US space agency's first crewed Moon landing mission since Apollo 17 in 1972.
It will measure what happens when the Sun’s radiation hits our rocky moon, where there is no magnetic field to protect it.

Space Launch System rocket (SLS):

NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle that provides the foundation for human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit.
With its unprecedented power and capabilities, SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and cargo directly to the Moon on a single mission.
Offering more payload mass, volume capability, and energy, SLS, the world’s most powerful rocket, can carry more payload to deep space than any other vehicle.
The SLS rocket is designed to be evolvable, which makes it possible to fly more types of missions, including human missions to the Moon and Mars and robotic scientific missions to places like the Moon, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter.
SLS is designed for deep space missions and will send Orion or other cargo to the Moon, which is nearly 1,000 times farther than where NASA’s International Space Station resides in low-Earth orbit.

Objective of Artemis I mission:

The primary operation goal of the mission is to assure a safe crew module entry, descent, splashdown, and recovery.
Artemis I is an uncrewed flight test that will lay the foundation for a sustained long-term presence on and around the Moon.
It will help us to get a feel for what astronauts will experience on future flights.
Artemis I is an important step in NASA’s long-term goals for space exploration, paving the way for us to land the first woman and the first person of colour on the Moon, explore more of the lunar surface than ever before — and prepare to travel on to Mars.

Do you Know?

Indian Missions to Moon:

Chandrayaan Mission:
- Chandrayaan Mission was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and was India’s first mission to the moon.
- The spacecraft was launched on 22nd October 2008 by a modified version of the PSLV C-11 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
- It achievements:
  - The discovery of presence of water molecules in the lunar soil.
  - It has provided high-resolution spectral data on the mineralogy of the Moon.
  - Chandrayaan-1 beamed back its first images of the Earth in its entirety.
  - Chandrayaan-1 has discovered large caves on the lunar surface that can act as human shelter on the Moon.
Chandrayaan 2:
- Chandrayaan – 2 is the second lunar mission of India after the success of Chandrayaan 1.
- This mission was conducted for topographical research and mineralogical studies to better understand the Moon’s origin and evolution.
- Chandrayaan 2 Mission was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on July 22, 2019, by GSLV Mk III-M1.
- Its objectives:
  - The main aim of Chandrayaan 2 was to trace the location and abundance of lunar water on the moon’s surface.
  - This mission was conducted for topographical research and mineralogical studies to better understand the Moon’s origin and evolution.
  - It aims for enhancing our understanding of the Moon, stimulate the advancement of technology, promote global alliances and inspire a future generation of explorers and scientists.
Chandrayaan-3:
- Chandrayaan-3 is ISRO’s third lunar exploration mission, the objective of which is soft-landing on the Moon.
- The mission will likely use a repeat of the parts from Chandrayaan-2 mission.
Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX):
- LUPEX is a joint robotic lunar mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
- The mission aims to send a lunar rover and lander to explore the South Pole region of the moon by 2024.
- The ISRO will provide the lander, while JAXA will be responsible for the H3 launch vehicle and the rover.

What's next?

There's a lot more to be done before astronauts step on the moon again. A second test flight will send four astronauts around the moon and back, perhaps as early as 2024.
A year or so later, NASA aims to send another four up, with two of them touching down at the lunar south pole. Orion doesn't come with its own lunar lander like the Apollo spacecraft did, so NASA has hired Elon Musk's SpaceX to provide its Starship spacecraft for the first Artemis moon landing.

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. India has achieved remarkable successes in unmanned space missions including the Chandrayaan and Mars Orbiter Mission, but has not ventured into manned space mission. What are the main obstacles to launching a manned space mission, both in terms of technology and logistics? Examine critically. (250 words).