By Charlie Levin
Humans are slated to return to the moon for the first time in more than a half a century. Next year, in a historic 10-day mission, a crew of four astronauts will journey to Earth’s natural satellite to conduct research experiments.
Though these four won’t step foot on the moon themselves, this will be a test flight for the Artemis III mission, a mission that will land humans on the moon for the first time since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
The system in place to get the astronauts into the moon’s orbit is the SLS (Space Launch System) carrying the Orion spacecraft. This system is so powerful, it can launch all the way to the moon, carrying all of the necessary supplies, in a single mission. The normal crewed missions that launch to the ISS space station are almost routine, now, for NASA. The SLS is able to cover that distance, times 1000, in a single mission, which is a technological breakthrough.
The system includes two rocket boosters, four engines, a core stage—which is almost half as big as the whole rocket system—adapters, another engine and propulsion system, and service and crew modules. The core stage includes liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to power the engines that are capable of lifting more than 38 tons into deep space.
The mission will launch and orbit Earth a couple of times before traveling towards the Moon. Then, the spacecraft will orbit the Moon before heading back to Earth. It will take four days to return, after which the spacecraft will splash down in the Pacific ocean and the astronauts will be brought back to the U. S..
NASA is eying a November 2024 launch date for this mission.
