Nasa announced on October 22 local time that the new spacecraft "Orion" has completed the work of carrying a new rocket "SLS" under development. The first flight of the SLS and Orion spacecraft, the unmanned Artemis 1 mission, will be implemented in February 2022.
The SLS is a large rocket developed for nasa's manned lunar exploration program Artemis, and is used for the launch of future probes and others, led by the Orion spacecraft, which was developed in parallel. From the beginning of development in 2011 to the present, the first aircraft of the SLS has finally been assembled.
The core is a 65m high and 8.4m diameter core stage, which is the largest rocket stage EVER by NASA. The "Core Class" is equipped with four modified "RS-25" engines of the "SSME" carried by the "Space Shuttle" decommissioned in 2011, and in March this year, it successfully conducted a combustion test for more than 8 minutes, which is comparable to the actual flight time.
The two solid-fuel rocket boosters supporting the first half of flight are mounted on the sides of the core stage, and the upper stage (the second stage) is the "Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage" (tentative) used in the initial operation. It will be equipped with a cryogenic propulsion stage and an "EUS" (exploration superior) under development that can carry a payload of 42 tons per month.
The Orion spacecraft, on the other hand, is NASA's first manned spacecraft since the space shuttle. Unlike the space shuttle, which has wings and large payload bays (cargo compartments), the crew module carrying four astronauts is a capsule type of Apollo spacecraft and SpaceX's "manned dragon".
At the bottom of the crew compartment, a European-made service cabin is connected via adapters. The service module includes an engine, solar panels, etc. to provide propulsion and power until the unit module is disconnected. In addition, during launch, an Emergency Escape System (LAS) is installed on top of the crew compartment to separate the crew compartment from the rocket and to separate the rocket in an emergency.
The assembled SLS Will be used for the launch of artemis 1 mission, which is both the first mission of artemis and the unmanned test flight of the Orion spacecraft. The Orion spacecraft was sent into orbit to the Moon by the SLS-superior ICPS and returned to Earth after flying in a stable orbit (DRO: Distant retrograde orbit) in the direction of the Moon's rotation.
In addition, ICPS carries a total of 13 ultra-small satellites (CubeSat), which will be separated sequentially after the Separation of the Orion spacecraft. The artemis 1 mission lasts from 26 to 42 days and will test not only the SLS and Orion spacecraft, but also the communication networks that support the mission.
Artemis 1 is an unmanned mission, the next "artemis 2" mission begins, astronauts will finally enter the Orion spacecraft, scheduled to be implemented in 2024 "artemis3" mission, humans will be on the moon again after half a century. The Artemis program, which continues to conduct exploration activities on the lunar surface and looks forward to future manned Mars exploration, also plans to detect water ice buried in the lunar south pole and conduct empirical experiments on technologies for extracting oxygen from the lunar regulate layer (fine sand). As the first step in the restart of manned lunar exploration, the success of the Artemis 1 mission is worth looking forward to.