If one looks at Artemis as a federal jobs program, it’s been a resounding success. That the first rocket performed pretty much flawlessly once it got off the ground is just a bonus.
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$6B over? Then it is right on budget.
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NASA’s Artemis II European Service Module is Making FAST Moves
Madison Tuttle
Technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida operate a 30-ton crane to lift and transfer the Orion spacecraft’s service module into the FAST (final assembly and system testing) cell on May 22, 2023, inside the spaceport’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building.
Teams are performing final checkouts of the Orion spacecraft’s service module before integrating the crew and service modules for Artemis II, the first Artemis mission with crew. In parallel, technicians from Airbus will conduct inspections of the solar array wings following the successful completion of service module acoustic testing in May, which ensured the service module can withstand the speed and vibration it will experience during launch and throughout the mission. During the inspections, each of the four panels will be fully redeployed and reexamined. The crew module also will undergo acoustic testing ahead of joining with the service module.
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Artemis II Orion Crew Module Acoustic Testing Complete
Linda Herridge
Artemis II crew members, shown inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, check out their Orion crew module on Aug. 8, 2023. From left are: Victor Glover, pilot; Reid Wiseman, commander; Christina Hammock Koch, mission specialist; and Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist. The crew module is undergoing acoustic testing ahead of integration with the European Service Module. Artemis II is the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term lunar presence for science and exploration under Artemis. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
On Aug. 13, engineers and technicians inside the high bay of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida successfully completed a series of acoustic tests to ensure the Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis II mission can withstand the speed and vibration it will experience during launch and throughout the 10-day mission around the Moon, the first Artemis mission with astronauts.
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Mobile Launcher Rolls to Launch Pad for Artemis ll Testing
Antonia Jaramillo Botero
Mobile launcher 1 is on its way to Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to prepare for Artemis ll, the first crewed mission on the agency’s path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon under Artemis.
Photo credit: NASA/Chad Siwik
Mobile launcher 1 is on its way to Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to prepare for Artemis ll, the first crewed mission on the agency’s path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon under Artemis. The ground structure began its trek from the west park site at approximately 8:27 a.m. EDT on Aug.16 atop the crawler-transporter 2. It will stop at the gate of pad 39B and resume its journey on Aug. 17.
Mobile Launcher Arrives at Launch Pad 39B for Artemis ll Preps
Antonia Jaramillo Botero
The mobile launcher, carried by the crawler-transporter 2, rolls out from its park site location to Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 16, 2023. While at the pad, it will undergo testing for the agency’s Artemis II mission. Under Artemis, the mobile launcher will transport NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to pad 39B for liftoff. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
After an approximately four-mile journey over the course of two days, mobile launcher 1 arrived on Aug. 17 at Launch Pad 39B from its park site location at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will remain at the pad for several months as teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program prepare for Artemis ll, the first crewed mission under Artemis.
In related news, Russia has lost Luna-25. It has fallen down and gone boom. Hard.
[Edit, 8/21/23] Looks like a software bug or sticking valve caused Luna-25 to accidentally deorbit during an orbit lowering maneuver. TLDR; the engine fired for 127 seconds instead of just 84.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/21/world/russia-luna-25-crash-cause-engine-issue-scn/index.html
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All Engines Added to NASA’s Artemis II Moon Rocket Core Stage
Lee Mohon
Engineers and technicians from NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and Boeing at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans have installed all four RS-25 engines to the core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket that will help power the first crewed Artemis mission to the Moon. The yellow core stage is seen in a horizontal position in the final assembly area at Michoud. The engines are arranged at the bottom of the rocket stage in a square pattern, like legs on a table. Photo Credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon
Teams at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans have structurally joined all four RS-25 engines onto the core stage for NASA’s Artemis II Moon rocket. The flight test is the agency’s first crewed mission under Artemis.
Artemis II Orion Crew and Service Modules Joined Together
Jason Costa
Integration of the crew and service modules for the Artemis II Orion spacecraft was recently completed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA
On Oct.19, the Orion crew and service modules for the Artemis II mission were joined together inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA Logo Installed on Lander for First Robotic Artemis Moon Flight
Antonia Jaramillo Botero
Teams with Astrobotic install the NASA meatball decal on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Peregrine will launch onboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket targeted for no earlier than Dec. 24, 2023, from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The lander will carry a suite of NASA payloads to the Moon as part of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis program. Photo credit: NASA/Isaac Watson
Teams have installed the NASA meatball logo onboard Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis program ahead of its upcoming launch on Dec. 24 from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida
Bear in mind that Peregrine will be riding on the first flight of ULA’s Vulcan rocket. Admittedly, ULA and its parent companies have tended to succeed at first launches in the last couple of decades, but it is a first launch, and it is the first flight of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines. The stakes here are much higher than those for SpaceX’s second Starship Integrated Flight Test were.
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Who didn’t see this coming: anyone? Anyone?
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Payload Assessments Continue for NASA Science Aboard Peregrine Mission One
Antonia Jaramillo Botero
NASA is working with Astrobotic to determine impact to the agency’s five science investigations aboard the company’s Peregrine Mission One spacecraft. Earlier today, Peregrine became the first American commercial lunar lander to launch on a Mission to the Moon. Soon after spacecraft separation, Peregrine experienced a propulsion issue. The privately designed and developed spacecraft uses novel, industry-developed technology, some of which has never flown in space. While it’s too soon to understand the root cause, NASA is supporting Astrobotic, and will assist in reviewing flight data, identifying the cause, and developing a plan forward.
TL;DR — the Vulcan launch was perfect but the main payload, the Peregrine lander, will probably never make it to the Moon. And if it somehow does, it will land far less gently than Luna 25 did a few months ago.
In related news, it is now extremely likely that Artemis II won’t launch until well into 2025, with Artemis III slipping even further to the right.
Edit: it’s official. The new dates, according to NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free, are:
- September 2025: Artemis II crew flight around the Moon and back in a free-return trajectory
- September 2026: Artemis III crewed lunar landing, with two astronauts going down to the surface in SpaceX’s Starship lander
- September 2028: Artemis IV crewed mission, first flight using upgraded version of Space Launch System rocket, lunar landing in Starship.
Congratulations to Japan for the successful landing of SLIM on the moon while not hitting the Gizmoplex, making the country only the fifth to succeed in the feat. Unfortunately, the solar cells aren’t generating any power for unclear reasons, so the mission may be cut short when the batteries run out in a few hours.
Update Monday, 2024-01-22: there’s still some hope!
Update Thursday, 2024-01-25: The good news: SLIM definitely made a precise, soft landing about 55 meters from its chosen landing site. The bad news: it landed on its nose!
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To prevent Peregrine from becoming a hazard, Astrobotic deliberately steered the malfunctioning lander into a controlled reentry of the Earth’s atmosphere where it has seemingly burned up safely (not a surprise given that it was coming in at over 25,000MPH without a heat shield).
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It’s not certain yet, but Intuitive Machines believes that the Odysseus lander had a foot dig in while still traversing horizontally at low speed during landing, tipped over, and that the vehicle is lying on its side on a rock on the surface of the Moon as a result. Still a soft landing, though, the solar cells are charging the batteries, and data is being downloaded. No photos yet, those will hopefully become available this weekend.
The problem with the laser rangefinders has been traced to human error — they forgot to disengage the safeties before flight! There is a physical switch on the lander to disable full laser power while the vehicle is still on Earth to prevent accidental eye damage, and it simply wasn’t flipped to flight mode before liftoff.
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In the press conference Steve Altemus (CEO/Co-Founder of IM) said they believe the spacecraft is in this orientation on the lunar surface. The small blue plastic model represents the approximate size of the rock it may be resting on.
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If my numbers are correct, sometime this weekend is also about the earliest that SLIM could reawaken provided it survived the lunar night.
This post should really be renamed.
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Agreed—that’s at least closer. If anyone has a better title feel free to change it (if you’re a Regular) or let me know.
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That definitely looks better to me.
Ingenuity shot these amazing photos of Perseverence’s wrecked backshell and parachute:
You can see Ingenuity’s shadow in a couple of these.
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The more I look at these, the more I’m amazed. On one hand, I’m sad that we’re essentially littering on another planet. I’d like to think that if we eventually colonize there, we’ll go clean that up.
On the other hand, there’s great science here. The discoloration of the parachute gives an indication of how fast the Martian sand is covering things up. And for the engineers who built the backshell, the crack patterns and distance of thrown debris probably provides data about how the shell handled the impact.
In the second image, those lines that look like tiny runoff channels are presumably where the parachute cords moved around as they settled.
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Would we clean it up or would we preserve it as a historic site?
Humans have trashed up everywhere they’ve ever been and we learn more from middens (trash heaps) and latrines than many other sources.
By the time Mars would be colonized to the point that these sites would be in the way of any sort of development or enjoyment of the scenery, humanity will be so far from today that they will be worth historical study.
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