ARTEMIS
Source: indianexpress
Why in News?
NASA's Artemis mission aims to put humans back on the moon for the first time after the Apollo 17 mission 50 years ago
The space agency has built the most powerful rocket ever, The Space Launch System (SLS) which will carry all the spacecraft as part of the Artemis mission
What is Artemis?
Artemis is the mission of NASA which is considered the next generation of lunar exploration
It is named after the twin sister of Apollo from the Greek mythology
Artemis is also the goddess of the moon
- NASA plans for an increasingly complex mission which enables human exploration of the Moon and Mars, Artemis is the first in the series
- Artemis aimed to land humans on the moon in 2024, and also planned to land the first woman and first person of colour on the moon
- NASA will establish an Artemis base camp on the surface, it will also establish a gateway which is a lunar outpost for the Moon, it can aid in exploration by robots and astronauts
Other Space agencies involved in Artemis
- Canadian Space Agency- Providing advanced robotics for the gateway
- European Space Agency - Providing International habitat and the ESPRIT module.
- Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency- Providing habitation components and logistics resupply
| ESPRIT-This module aims to deliver additional communication capabilities among others |
Important facts about Artemis
- Artemis I is formerly known as Exploration Mission - 1
- It will be the first integrated flight test of NASA's Deep Space Exploration Systems
- It comprises Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and newly upgraded Exploration Ground systems
- Orion Spacecraft will remain in space without docking to a Space Station, longer than any ship for astronauts has ever done before
- The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is the most powerful rocket in the world with a newly upgraded Exploration Ground System
- SLS and Orion under Artemis I will be launched from the Kennedy Space centre
- It is an uncrewed space mission where the spacecraft will launch on an SLS rocket
CAPSTONEA micro oven-sized CubeSat weighing just 55 pounds will serve as the first spacecraft to test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit as part of the CAPSTONE(Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) experiment
A pathfinder for Gateway, Moon-Orbiting Outpost which is part of the Artemis program, CAPSTONE will help reduce the risk for future Spacecraft by validating innovative navigation technologies and verifying the dynamics of this halo-shaped orbit
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Next Steps under Artemis
- Second flight will have a crew on board
- It will test Orion's critical systems with humans Onboard
- The experiences from Artemis Programme will be utilised to send the first Astronauts to the Mars
Important Space Facts regarding Moon
GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) - It is an American Lunar Science Mission, which used high-quality gravitational field mapping of the moon to determine its interior structure
Apollo 11 - American Spaceflight that first landed humans on the moon
