Right or wrong, a key engine burnout puts NASA’s Artemis II on its way to the moon

Artemis II has officially left Earth’s surface, and the Orion spacecraft is now on its three-day descent leg space journey towards e month.

After NASA voted “go” for translunar injection – or TLI, the main engine firing – flight controllers ordered it to proceed before 8 pm ET on Thursday, April 2, less than 24 hours later. historical work is presented from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

For the US space agency, this period is a real point of no return for a carefully planned test flight. It is the last great machine gun. Combustion not only pushes the capsule to the moon, it also serves as the same critical mechanism that will eventually bring the astronauts home.

That’s it more dangerous than a regular NASA spacecraft. On the International Space Station, astronauts orbit the Earth every hour and a half. If something goes wrong, they are never more than 90 minutes away from an emergency room. But for Artemis II, as soon as the controllers take this step, NASA is committed to the entire mission, save for a few U-turn options, said colleague Christina Koch.

“Getting our heads around it is very interesting,” said Koch, who oversees those processes, during a pre-launch news conference. “Before we get into some of our plans [simulations]we’re talking about, ‘Hey, there’s no canceling the countdown this time – we’re re-entering,’ but the truth is, we’re re-entering right now doing TLI.”

I 10-day flight of Artemis IIled by Commander Reid Wisemanpilot Victor Glover, along with engineers Jeremy Hansen and Koch, aim to land on the moon in time Artemis IV in early 2028. This mission tests the necessary resources for that future journey: NASA’s powerful rocket, the Orion spacecraft, and ground crews.

In future works of Artemis on the moon, the agency wants astronauts to practice long-term survival away from Earth before moving on to Mars, where the crew will need more. extraterrestrial survival skills.

So far the crew has created a toilet for the spacecraft – with a few constraints – and perform a pilot maneuver towards and around the deployed navigation system. This project was intended to test how Orion’s hand controls handle us, as this will be required for future docking operations. those who sit on the moon in space.

Astronauts get used to it too life inside the capsule. The cabin experienced unexpected temperatures. The crew took extra long-sleeved shirts out of their suitcases to try and keep warm.

At the end of Flight Day 1, the astronauts’ sleep was interrupted in the middle of the night, a short engine fire to fix Orion’s orbit around the world. An unscheduled operation was part of the strategy, and the crew returned to their sleeping bags to rest for a few more hours before the translunar injection was fired.

Koch set up Orion’s new combustion system, powered by Orion’s main engine in the European Service Module. The system provides enough torque to accelerate the car from zero to 60 mph in less than three seconds.

During the 10-day spacecraft journey, the Artemis II crew will fly around Earth and, after a month, test the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems.
Credit: NASA infographic

An engine firing of nearly six minutes was needed to accelerate the spacecraft so it could escape Earth’s gravity. This approach allows astronauts to travel without making major corrections along the way.

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The burn reset the spacecraft’s path into a long loop that will carry it a quarter-million miles from home. It will also use the moon’s gravity to shoot Orion back to Earth. It is the first time since 1972 that humans have left Earth’s orbit.

The equipment arrangement is what is known as a free return route, said Lakiesha Hawkins, director of test program development.

“This is something we have experienced before,” he said. “If you remember in your history, we did that on Apollo 8 and Apollo 13.”