NASA announces crew that will go to the Moon in 2024 – 03/04/2023 – Science

NASA announced on Monday (3) the names of the four astronauts who will become the first human beings to travel to the vicinity of the Moon in the 21st century on the Artemis 2 mission: three men and one woman.

The mission commander will be Reid Wiseman, 47, a systems engineer, test pilot and veteran of a long-duration mission to the International Space Station in 2014. The pilot will be Victor Glover, 46, a systems engineer with experience as a Navy officer. American and veteran of a long-term mission to the ISS (International Special Station) – between 2020 and 2021, on the second manned flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.

As mission specialists, Christina Koch, 44, master of electrical engineering and veteran of a long-term expedition to the ISS (between 2019 and 2020, when she broke the record for the longest continuous stay by a woman in space), and Jeremy Hansen, 47 , fresh out of the Canadian Armed Forces and with a master’s degree in physics – the only non-American, the first Canadian destined to leave Earth orbit, and the only one of the group not to have gone into space so far.

It’s a different crew from the ones that led the Apollo lunar missions in the 1960s and 1970s. There, they were all male, American and white. Here, a woman, a black man and a Canadian – a contrast with the past century in valuing diversity and international partnerships. The CSA (Canadian Space Agency) is part of the Artemis program and should provide a robotic arm for the future Gateway lunar orbital station, which should begin construction from the Artemis 4 mission (expected for 2028).

For the first time, four people will fly to the moon at once. The Apollo missions only supported three. Between 1968 and 1972, 24 humans left Earth orbit, and 12 walked on the Moon. Since then, no one has repeated any of these feats – until Artemis 2.

TO THE MOON AND BACK

The mission, currently scheduled for December 2024, will make the program’s first manned flight.

Its predecessor, Artemis 1, flew between November 16 and December 11 of last year, performing the first successful joint test of the SLS moon rocket (English acronym for Space Launch System) and the Orion capsule (cooperatively developed by NASA and ESA, its European counterpart). There were a total of 25 and a half days of flight, but without a crew.

The idea was to test the systems as much as possible with a long duration mission before putting humans on board. For Artemis 2, the flight plan is different and more modest. It will last about ten days, in what will ultimately be a free return trajectory – meaning that, when placed on its way to the Moon, the spacecraft will not need extra propulsion to return to Earth.

It is a reasonable security measure, also adopted during the first Apollo missions, to guarantee the return of the crew even in case of failures on the way.

The difference is that, in the flights of the last century, the spacecraft was finally inserted into the orbit of the Moon and, with that, left the return trajectory free, requiring a new engine burn to put itself once again on the way to Earth. That won’t happen in Artemis 2; the capsule will only go around the Moon, at a considerable distance (about 10,000 km), and will already be on the return route, making a journey similar to a figure eight.

The departure will also be considerably different from the Apollo missions (and Artemis 1). After launch, the astronauts will circle the Earth twice. The first orbit will be an ellipse with an apogee of about 2,900 km and a period of about 90 minutes. For the second, the second stage of the SLS will raise the maximum altitude to 74,000 km, in an orbit that will last 23.5 hours, before separating from the capsule.

Orion will then use its maneuverers to perform close approaches to the stage, testing the systems that will be required for future rendezvous and docking in space. After that, it will use its main engine to make one final push away from Earth – the translunar injection. The Moon’s and Earth’s gravity will do the rest. The journey to the Moon will take four days, and another four will be required for the return, totaling ten mission days.

A LOT IN A FEW MISSIONS

It may even seem like a modest achievement, given that, in December 1968, Apollo 8 entered low lunar orbit on its first trip there. But it is worth noting that Artemis 2 should break the records for the manned vehicle to go further from Earth (Apollo 13, in 1970, was 400,171 km) and for the fastest re-entry into the atmosphere (Apollo 10, in 1969).

It is also worth remembering that SLS and Orion are entirely new vehicles, which still need to be tested in all their functions. And, in the end, what the agency hopes to accomplish with just three missions (Artemis 1, 2 and 3) the Apollo program accomplished with six (the unmanned Apollo 4 and 6 missions flew with the Saturn V moon rocket, and the crews 8, 9, 10 and 11, until the first landing). This is not counting test flights that did not have a crew or that did not use the Saturn V, such as Apollo 7 (manned, but in Earth orbit).

If successfully completed, the flight scheduled for the end of next year paves the way for Artemis 3, which, according to NASA’s plans, should perform the first manned landing of the 21st century. schedule of trying to carry out this landing mission on the surface of the Moon still in 2025, but it is very likely to escape to 2026 or even 2027.