All Systems Go for Sending Humans 'Round the Moon, Artemis I Data Clears the Way

Artemis I lifted off on November 16, 2022, as the first major, human-rated Moon exploration program after the Apollo effort of the 1960s. It carried no humans with it, as it was solely a test flight of the main Artemis technologies, but the lessons learned from the flight will prove invaluable in our quest to put American boots on the Moon once more.

This week, after four months of cranking the numbers, NASA released the first details on what it learned from Artemis I. Again, work on analyzing data is far from over, but the bottom line so far is that everything worked within and at times above expectations, and that means all systems go for the 2024 launch of Artemis II. And by all systems, I mean the Space Launch System (SLS rocket), the mobile launcher from where it departs, and the Orion spaceship itself.

Space Launch System rocket

As the world’s most powerful rocket (at least until a full-blown SpaceX Starship gets here), the SLS is the tool that makes the exploration of the Moon possible. Despite experiencing some issues during the first launch attempts, it eventually managed to lift off, placing the Orion in position for a “near-perfect trans-lunar injection burn.”

According to NASA, everything about the rocket worked “with all of its systems meeting, and in many cases exceeding, performance expectations.” Even the separation of the rocket from the spaceship it carried went without a hitch, making engineers confident the second iteration of the SLS, currently in the works, will perform just as intended for Artemis II.

Mobile Launcher

Officially the platform that supports the SLS during assembly, processing, and launch, the mobile launcher is what took the brunt of the rocket’s force during the mission’s initial stages. Keep in mind a total of 8.8 million pounds of thrust were produced during launch, and it was all pointing down at the launcher in the initial seconds.

As was to be expected, the launcher was to sustain some damage, but engineers now say it got hit a bit worse than expected. Just to give you a few examples, the platform’s pneumatic and cryogenic fueling lines sustained corrosion, welds on tubing gave way, no less than 60 panels and cabinets with instrumentation were damaged, and some elevators and blast shields suffered destruction.

Work is underway to repair them all and get the thing ready for Artemis II. This being the first crewed mission of the program, it will require some upgrades to be made as well. The most important is the addition of an emergency egress system, which should help save astronauts’ lives in case something goes truly wrong.

Orion Spaceship

Although important components for the success of the mission, neither the SLS nor the mobile launcher is as critical as the spaceship itself. Called Orion, it will be the astronauts’ home for days, shielding them from danger and tasked with bringing them back home.

For Artemis I, the Orion traveled a total of 1.4 million miles (2.25 million km) in a little over 25 days, moving to a point 270,000 miles (435,000 km) beyond the Moon – the farthest distance a crew-rated spaceship ever reached.

During its flight, the spaceship generated some 155 gigabytes of data, all of which is currently being looked at by NASA engineers. There’s still a lot to go through, but we already know some of the essential findings, the most important of them being, of course, the fact the spaceship performed as expected and survived.

During the almost month-long flight, the spaceship successfully fulfilled no less than 161 test objectives. Of them, 20 were not even planned initially, and were added to the ship’s to-do list halfway through the flight.

The Orion is powered by something called the European Service Module, in essence, the unit that gives the ship maneuvering capabilities. Centered around a repurposed Space Shuttle hardware, it proved to be a fine piece of engineering by generating 20 more power than expected.

During its separation from the SLS, all of Orion’s 375 pyrotechnic devices fired with no issues. Upon return, it managed to splash down just 2.4 miles (3.8 km) from where it was intended, and that’s well within the NASA margins.

Not everything was perfect though. As per NASA, the extreme heat during re-entry caused visual variations on various parts of the ablative material on the heat shield, indicating it wore out differently. Why this is so is still under investigation.

And so are several other glitches recorded during the spaceflight, including the apparently random switching to the open position of some of the ship’s circuit breakers, the ones in the power conditioning and distribution unit.

Artemis II

A series of components used in Artemis I will be redeployed in the hardware of the Artemis II mission. Things like Orion’s phased array antennas, GPS receivers, and inertial measurement units, but also avionics, have been or are in the process of being fitted inside the Artemis II Orion.

The mission is scheduled to depart sometime in late 2024 with humans on board. It will not land them on the Moon (the hardware needed to handle the landing part is not even made yet), but will follow roughly the same path as the first mission.

Getting the mission ready is just a matter of time. In May 2023, NASA expects to install the heat shield and connect the crew and service modules. On the SLS front, the booster motor segments and core stage will be moved to the Kennedy Space Center. Later in the summer will be when the upgraded mobile launcher is transported to the launch pad for testing. Separately, recovery teams will begin practicing their missions in open water conditions.

If successful, Artemis II will not only open to doors to a human landing on the Moon, but will also set the basis for the colonization of the satellite by our species. Fingers crossed!