![]() NASA laid out plans in April to send four astronauts from the U.S. According to the agency, the mission will increase scientists’ knowledge of space exploration and provide the agency with data to establish a “long-term presence” on the moon and eventually “establish a community” on Mars. NASA launched the Artemis 1 uncrewed spacecraft in November as the first step in its long-awaited program to “establish the first long-term presence” on the moon, before potentially sending astronauts to Mars. That’s how much NASA’s Artemis missions are estimated to cost by 2025, according to the NASA Office of the Inspector General, though the program is expected to cost significantly more throughout its multi-stage process. Billionaire Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX aims to eventually send people to Mars, said in 2021 that humanity should not be “one of those single-planet species,” and should develop a presence on Mars. Roughly 65% of Americans believe people will build colonies on other planets by the year 2073, according to the survey, which comes as NASA prepares to return humans to the moon and potentially reach Mars, and as calls mount for further space exploration. Respondents in the survey were less enthusiastic about traveling on a space tourism flight themselves, with 35% saying they would opt to orbit the Earth. In other words, it's going to be huge.Roughly 55% of respondents believe space tourism will be a routine operation 50 years from now, as companies including billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic compete in a growing, and highly expensive, commercial space tourism industry (tickets on Virgin Galactic’s brief flights to the edge of space cost $450,000). It's going to be a tense few hours with a nail-biting countdown, especially considering the rollercoaster ride that is Artemis, but one also surrounded by an air of wonder and excitement. ![]() Think of Artemis I as a crucial flight test and proof-of-principle experiment for a very expensive project.Ī flawless launch could mark the beginning of NASA's modern moon exploration years. These instruments will track vital information about the spacecraft's trajectory, safety, radiation absorption and much more that'll essentially map out the routes of future missions - missions with a human crew like Artemis II and 2025's Artemis III. Orion is filled to the brim with objects like Amazon Alexa, TV character Shaun the Sheep, mannequins, miniature satellites and most importantly, tons of navigation and data collection equipment. (That's planned for 2025.)Īt launch, Artemis I's 32-story rocket blasted off from Earth and propel a relatively small white spacecraft named Orion into lunar orbit. There's a lot riding on its success, though, including the prospect of landing people on the moon sometime in the near future. To be clear, this mission doesn't have astronauts on board. Well, it could happen as soon as Wednesday. "So when will this cursed thing launch?" you might've been asking. Thankfully, only minor repairs were necessary to get the rocket back into shape. But that decision jeopardized the launch timeline one more time because it meant Artemis I had to battle incredibly high winds it wasn't quite built to withstand. The rocket wasn't rolled off the launchpad this time. And then , as if Artemis I hadn't already been through enough, Hurricane Nicole blew in last week. The agency finally announced a new launch date of Nov. 2 because the storm forced NASA to roll the tangerine machine off the launchpad and back to safety in the Vehicle Assembly Building. Hurricane Ian even ruined the agency's backup launch date of Oct. The third attempt got nixed in late September as Hurricane Ian threatened Artemis I's launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. On the second attempt a few days later, a pesky hydrogen leak kept it grounded. NASA scrubbed the craft's first launch attempt in late August due to a troublesome engine issue. NASA's ambitious, expensive and intricate moon rocket, Artemis I, has had a rough run. ![]() What follows below is the original story. NASA launched the Artemis I mission on Wednesday morning.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |