To the moon and back! Orion’s historic mission come to an end tonight with a splashdown in the Pacific
Nasa’s Artemis-1 moon mission is set to end with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 17 moon landing.
Nasa’s Artemis-1 Orion spacecraft is ready to return home. The spacecraft, which launched on November 16, is scheduled to land in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.
The Orion capsule, carrying a simulated crew of three sensor-equipped mannequins, is scheduled to parachute into the Pacific near Guadalupe Island, off Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, at 12.39 PM EST (11.09 PM IST).
Artemis I: Or, To the Moon and Back Again. 🚀
Live coverage of our @NASA_Orion spacecraft’s return to Earth will begin at 11am ET (1600 UTC) on Dec. 11, with splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near Guadalupe Island at 12:39pm ET (1739 UTC). Watch it live: https://t.co/7hsnUGlwJs pic.twitter.com/IgcSctF36D
— NASA (@NASA) December 10, 2022
The launch of Orion marked the beginning of NASA’s Artemis programme, which aims to return people to the Moon and prepare them for a future trip to Mars. On Sunday, the Orion lunar mission will come to an end, marking 50 years since Apollo 17’s moon landing.
The final moments of Artemis-1 are critical because the program’s future missions are dependent on its success.
WHY IS RE-ENTRY CRITICAL?
One of the primary goals is to put Orion’s heat shield to the test as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere at 24,500 miles (39,400 km) per hour, which is faster than re-entry from the space station. The re-entry will determine whether the heat shield can withstand atmospheric friction, which is expected to raise outside-capsule temperatures to nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).
“It is our number one priority,” NASA’s Artemis I mission manager Mike Sarafin said during a briefing last week. “No arc-jet or aerothermal facility on Earth can replicate hypersonic re-entry with a heat shield this size.”
The re-entry will also put the advanced guidance and thruster systems to the test, as they will be used to steer the capsule from the moon to its proper re-entry point and through descent, keeping the spacecraft at just the right angle to avoid burning up.
AFTER ARTMEIS-1, WHAT COMES NEXT?
If the Artemis-1 mission is successful, a crewed Artemis II flight around the moon and back could occur as early as 2024, followed by the program’s first lunar landing of astronauts, one of whom will be a woman, with Artemis III within a few years. According to Reuters, sending astronauts to Mars is expected to take at least another decade and a half.
(With inputs from Reuters)
