Naaju Breaking News, Live Updates, Latest Headlines, Viral News, Top Stories, Trending Topics, Videos
[ad_1]
48 years have pbaded since Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt landed on the lunar surface on December 11, 1972. Since then, we have not returned, but NASA has a plan. His name is Mission Artemis and two astronauts will visit the Moon in 2024.
Why Artemis
This name is a gesture of recognition of the accomplishments of dozens of women who have made possible the current space technology. Artemis or Artemis in Spanish is the Greek goddess of hunting and twin sister of Apollo. The Artemis mission will be the first in which a female astronaut climbs to the surface of the Moon. NASA announced the name of the mission on May 13, 2019. Until then, there was not even a specific denomination, only vague plans.
When will it happen?
NASA's initial plan was to return to the moon in 2028, but the president of the United States has another idea in mind. The Trump administration wants to advance the return to the moon in 2024. At a recent press conference, NASA director Jim Bridenstine said:
President Donald Trump has asked NASA to accelerate its plans to return to the moon and allow humans to return to its surface in 2024. We will come back to this with new technologies and innovative systems for explore more places than we would have ever thought of on its surface. possible This time we will go to the moon to stay. Then we'll use what we've learned to make the next big leap: send astronauts to Mars.
What is the plan?
The Artemis program and its missions are in their infancy. There is no concrete timetable and many technologies needed to return to the moon still need to be developed. Waiting? How should they develop?
Yes, NASA does not want to return to the moon in the same precarious conditions as the Apollo missions, just to plant a flag, collect stones and be able to say that we have been there. This time, the idea is to go serenely and look carefully to see if we can take advantage of our satellite, which requires a very different approach. For starters, the agency wants to develop a sustainable and reusable system. This system is structured around four new elements:
The Space Launch System (SLS)
Reaching the Moon involves a larger ship (more details below) and more scientific equipment. The SLS is the rocket that will be responsible for launching all this equipment and personnel in space. Its initial configuration allows to put into orbit nearly 26 tons of equipment. Future upgrades will increase this capacity to 45 tons.
The Orion vessel
The Orion is the most advanced long-haul ship available for NASA. We've already tested it in space (up and into orbit), but now is the time to try it back and forth to the moon. The first of these unmanned flights will take off, if all goes as planned, in 2020. The first inhabited in 2022.
The Gateway Space Station
Imagine the International Space Station, but orbiting the Moon rather than Earth, you'll have a very rough idea of what Gateway will look like. The station will be the point of arrival of the Orion ships, as well as the place from which the descent missions to the surface of the Moon will leave. The idea is good because it will allow you to descend on any place of the Moon and will also serve as a starting point and supply for missions in deep space. The first element of this station will be the energy and propulsion system, which has not yet been defined. It will be in 2022.
The descent module
Finally, a descent module is necessary to allow astronauts or robots to descend on the lunar surface and return to Gateway. There are several models in competition. Lockheed Martin, for example, has a proposal. Millionaire Jeff Bezos recently introduced Blue Moon, another downhill module proposal.
Who pays for all this?
Jim Bridenstine recently announced a correction to NASA's budget for 2020 at the request of Trump. The agency will receive (with congressional approval) an additional injection of $ 1,600 million to begin immediately the development of technologies required for Artemis missions. This budget is broken down as follows:
- $ 651 million for the final development of the SLS rocket
- $ 824 million will go to Gateway's design.
- 132 million euros for the technologies needed to return to the moon.
- 90 million euros for the design of robotic exploration.
The third section concerns new propulsion systems, machines to convert lunar ice into water, air or fuel, 3D systems for printing structures … It goes without saying that the Artemis program will need much more than that to take off. The good news is that NASA is no longer alone in developing technologies to return to the moon. Other agencies work on different systems, either in collaboration with Houston or on their own. In addition, several companies wish to join the Moon because of the economic possibilities that their exploitation could have. Blue Origin (the company owner of Amazon) or Space X are just two of them.
What will they do on the moon
An initial answer to this question is "to explore it thoroughly". This includes visiting regions that we only know of lunar orbit as the poles. However, the main objective of the Artemis program is to study new technologies that only work from the materials we have in our satellite. NASA wants to know to what extent we can use ice under the lunar surface to extract resources or the Martian regolith as a building material. What we are doing in these areas will be of great help when we plan to visit worlds further afield than Mars. [NASA y NASA]
.
[ad_2]
Source link
