NASA: With Artemis mission, Europeans approach the Moon – 02/10/2023 – Science

European astronauts may set foot on the moon for the first time in the next few years thanks to the Artemis mission, commanded by NASA and its Orion spacecraft.

For the first time, the United States has given the European Space Agency (ESA) and the aerospace giant Airbus responsibility for the system essential to the launch of a future manned mission.

In exchange, the Europeans have three guaranteed places on the mission’s flights, which may take place from 2027, although the possibility of obtaining opportunities before this date is still under debate.

This role is crucial, as they provide “half of the spacecraft that will take men to the moon and certainly back to Earth safe and sound,” said Marc Steckling, head of space exploration at Airbus.

First woman to step on the moon

There’s a lot at stake with man’s return to the moon 50 years after the Apollo mission.

The Artemis mission wants to prove that NASA and European astronauts are capable of competing with China and SpaceX, which have their own projects.

Europeans began supplying service modules (ESM) for Orion capsules. These cylinders, four meters in diameter and tall, are made up of 22,000 parts supplied by ten countries and are assembled at the Airbus headquarters in Bremen, in northern Germany.

When completed, they will be taken to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

So far, module 2 has been delivered and the next three are already being assembled.

“We are well on our way to meeting NASA’s requirement to deliver one module per year”, said Steckling, one of the main responsible for the BRL 10.5 billion project.

The first Artemis mission, a trip around the Moon without a crew, was successfully carried out at the end of 2022. The delicate return to the atmosphere took place at a speed of 40,000 km/h, without setbacks.

Artemis 2 will carry astronauts into orbit around the Moon in 2024.

Mission 3 should be carried out the following year, allowing a woman and a non-white person to step on the Moon for the first time, succeeding the 12 men who have already accomplished the feat.

The role of the European module, placed under the Orion capsule, will be fundamental: it will supply electricity, through four solar panels, for services essential to the astronauts’ lives, such as water, oxygen and temperature control.

The module will also carry out orbital maneuvers, and may even be used to transport cargo to the future Gateway lunar space station.

Chinese efforts

If in the space race of the 1960s the United States competed with the Soviet Union, today the main opponent is China.

Beijing plans to send people to the Moon in 2030, but the US and Europe are not looking to be far behind in this race.

The ultimate goal of the mission is to build a lunar ecosystem capable of better understanding and exploring the Moon, and, in the long term, to carry out manned missions to Mars.

“There are many good reasons to go to the moon,” said David Parker, European Space Agency’s director of exploration.

“The Moon is a history book from which we can learn, thanks to the studies of meteorites that are there, how the Earth was formed and what its future is”, analyzed the German astronaut Alexander Gerst, who has already been to the International Space Station ( ISS) on two occasions.

For ESA program coordinator Philippe Berthe, “the Moon preserves the history of the solar system since its creation and has remained relatively intact, as it has no atmosphere or erosion.”

Earth’s natural satellite also contains exploitable resources, especially at the south pole, which, according to Berthe, may contain ice, which could be used to produce fuel.