For the first time in more than 50 years, humans will be launched towards the moon this week – and there’s a bit of help from Australia to get them there.
If all goes to plan, NASA’s Artemis II mission will take off from Cape Canaveral on the Florida coast on Wednesday evening US time.
Should the 10-day mission be a success, it could lead to what still seems like the realm of science fiction: another lunar landing, a permanent base to effectively conquer the moon and even the first manned mission to Mars.
The Artemis program began life under former US President Barack Obama. But it’s been enthusiastically adopted by Donald Trump over his presidencies and is a key part of his “new golden age of American space leadership”.
Mr Trump wants NASA to land a man on the moon by 2028 and he definitely doesn’t want China to get there first.
Four astronauts will squeeze into the tiny Orion capsule atop the massive Space Launch System (SLS) rockets, which at 98 metres is higher than the Statue of Liberty.
Big aerospace and defence companies are involved, with Boeing and L3Harris, among others, building the rockets and Lockheed Martin the living capsule. Elon Musk’s SpaceX doesn’t have as much to do with Artemis II, but NASA has suggested his space firm could play a far bigger role in future missions.
The aim is for Artemis II to circle the moon. It will travel 1000 times further away from the earth then the International Space Station.
First manned moon mission for 53 years
It’s a journey with a number of firsts: the first manned lunar mission since 1972’s Apollo 17; the first woman on a moon mission, Christina Koch; and the first black person on a moon mission, pilot Victor Glover. They will join commander Reid Wiseman and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, the first non-American to take part in a lunar trip.
Artemis II should launch into Florida’s blue skies no earlier than 6.24pm local time on Wednesday (9.24am on Thursday AEST).
“NASA is in an exploration mindset and are determined to return us to the moon,” adjunct curator for space history at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, Geoff Nunn, said.
“The Artemis II flight is equivalent to Apollo eight,” which circled the moon 10 times.
“They’re not going to land – they’re going to orbit the moon at a distance and really do a shakedown cruise of the Orion spacecraft, which will (on later missions) return us to the moon.”
The launch comes three and half years after Artemis I, an unmanned 26-day flight around the moon. Parts of the Orion capsule, used on that flight, are being reused. But unlike the Space Shuttle of old, the SLS is a one-and-done rocket.
The four astronauts, and a few understudies, are now in quarantine ahead of the launch.
“This is a test mission,” astronaut Wiseman said late last week, trying to downplay expectations.
“When we get off the planet, we might come right back home; we might spend three or four days around earth; we might go to the moon – that’s where we want to go.
“We’re ready for every scenario as we ride this amazing Space Launch System in the Orion spacecraft, 250,000 miles away.”
They need to be ready for every scenario as there have been problems with Artemis.
A planned launch in February had to be scrapped following a leak in a hydrogen seal. There have also been questions about the Orion’s heat seals which sustained damage in the Artemis I mission.
There’s always a risk something unexpected could go wrong.
And it’s not been a cheap endeavour, with Orion and the SLS costing $64 billion so far.
Under new chief Jared Isaacman, NASA has been told to speed things up. An earlier plan to build a new space station called Lunar Gateway, a staging zone where astronauts could prepare for moon landings, has now been ditched. It was all too slow – the priority now is to get straight to the moon and build a base before anyone else – read Beijing – does.
‘Fundamentally different’ to Apollo
Mr Nunn said that made Artemis a “fundamentally different” mission to Apollo.
“For Apollo, everything landed roughly on the equatorial region of the moon. Now NASA is looking at the lunar south pole because that really helps to facilitate a permanent presence,” he said.
“The moon’s south pole has water ice in the lunar soil, in permanently shattered craters, which if you split it into its components, hydrogen and oxygen, can be used for breathing air and fuel.”
There are also areas of permanent sunlight at the pole aiding solar panels.
Australia’s role in Artemis
Australia has a role to play in Artemis, just like it had in Apollo.
The CSIRO, the national science agency, manages the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex for NASA which will be vital for keeping in touch with the astronauts and the space craft.
Australia has played a crucial role in the Artemis program, the Director of the Office of Space Affairs at the US Department of State, Valda Vikmanis, told news.com.au from Washington DC.
“Australia was there at the very beginning of the drafting of the Artemis accords,” she said, referring to the multinational agreements put in place to govern the space missions.
“Australia was one of the core drafters and was actually involved in writing the accords.”
Ms Vikmanis also said there could be a deeper role for Australia in future missions due to its unique position on the globe.
“Australia is definitely positioning itself to be a re-entry location, leveraging its geography and having the Outback,” she said.
“Australia is a great example of a country where we’re trying to get it as easy as possible for (international) companies to work back and forth (on space) without having really substantially different sets of rules and regulations.”
The Museum of Flight’s Mr Nunn said the launch window could change, chiefly due to weather.
“They are not determined by NASA, the launch windows are determined by the position of the moon in the sky,” he said.
“So if they miss this first week of April, they’ll jump to the windows, which are going to be the first week in May.”
But he said signs were looking good for April 1.
“The astronauts are in quarantine, the SLS rocket is out on the launch pad,” he said.
“As far as we can tell, NASA is ready to go and we’re incredibly excited.
“We are ready to celebrate when we send our astronauts around the moon.”
