NASA’s Blast Off Begins!
Featuring: Mathew Gibson, Alice Eldridge, NASA.gov
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (more commonly referred to as NASA) has officially announced the moon landing will happen in late September 2028, with no official date.
Artemis lll is the name of the most “complex engineering and human ingenuity in the history of deep space exploration,” according to NASA’s website. With this work, they will gain more information about the solar system to understand more about space.
The four astronauts that will be taking off to space are Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman. They will be taking on the exploration for more information about the moon and solar system.
“NASA will make history by sending the first humans to explore the region near the lunar South Pole,” said NASA. This mission will send the astronauts to the lunar South Pole. This will be their first return to the moon since 50 years ago.
While going to the South Pole of the moon, history will be made by the first woman and first person of color in space.
The official spacecraft name is Orion Spacecraft and this will take the astronauts to and from earth. “Orion is the only spacecraft capable of returning crews to Earth at lunar reentry velocities,” said NASA.
When the crew takes off in 2026, they will be floating in space for two years before finally landing on the moon close to the end of 2028. “The moon’s distance to the earth varies because it follows an elliptical orbit around the earth; it’s roughly a quarter million miles away,” Biology and astronomy teacher Mattew Gibson said.
The launch of Artemis III will happen on Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.“ The only rocket powerful enough to send Orion, its crew, and their supplies to the Moon in a single launch,” said NASA.
Before they reach the moon, they will inspect the system checks and solar panel adjustments on Orion. After they are done doing these precautions, they will start to officially head to the moon.
According to NASA, “For the next couple of days the crew will be blasting off to get into the Moon’s gravitational field. At the right time and location, Orion will perform a series of two engine burns to place the spacecraft in a lunar Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO).” NRHO will be helping with communication from space to earth while they are out.
“On future missions, NASA and its partners will assemble the Gateway lunar space station in NRHO to serve as a hub for Artemis missions,” said NASA. NASA will be using SpaceX to bring the astronauts back to earth from the moon.
SpaceX was originally created by Elon Musk for a more affordable space travel and aerospace industry, “SpaceX was formed by entrepreneur Elon Musk in the hopes of revolutionizing the aerospace industry and making affordable spaceflight a reality. The company entered the arena with the Falcon 1 rocket, a two-stage liquid-fueled craft designed to send small satellites into orbit,” said Alice Eldridge. NASA uses SpaceX to help the crew with landing.
“SpaceX plans to use a unique concept of operations to increase the overall efficiency of their lander,” said NASA. Before the crew gets launched into the lunar atmosphere, SpaceX will be sending off a storage depot to Earth orbit.
Another useful source for the astronauts will be helping the crew.
According to NASA, “A series of reusable tankers will carry propellant to the storage depot to fuel the human landing system.”
These tanks will fill up and leave for NRHO in six days waiting for the astronauts.
Before Artemis’s launch happens, another will occur in 2025, Artemis 2. After that, they will continue to prepare for the launch of Artemis III landing them on the south pole of the moon.
