Tag: NASA Artemis Program

Space News for September 2020.

There are a number of small but nevertheless important items that have happened over the last month which deal with NASA’s Artemis program. So let’s get started.

 If NASA’s Artemis program is going to successfully put Americans back on the Moon by 2024, or indeed ever, it is going to need a big rocket to put all of that hardware into space. The big rocket that NASA has been building now for nine years is called the Space Launch System (SLS) and although it may look superficially like the old Saturn V it is in fact a completely new design based on Space Shuttle hardware.

Artist’s impression of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). (Credit: NASA)

In fact the SLS employs four shuttle main engines in its first stage and in addition has two shuttle solid fuel boosters attached. Since the SLS is making use of a fair amount of existing components you’d think that the design cost and schedule would be reasonable compared to those for a completely new large launch vehicle, say Space X’s Falcon 9.

The first core stage of the SLS nearing completion. Those four big engines are identical to the engines used on the Space Shuttle. (Credit: NASA Spaceflight.com)

Well you’d be wrong, in fact the original cost of the central core first stage of the SLS was estimated at $6 billion. That amount was already ‘readjusted’ back in 2017 to $7.17 billion and now NASA has quietly increased that amount to $9.1 billion. And as to schedule, the original launch date for an unmanned flight of the SLS was supposed to be back in 2017, a date that was later pushed back to December of 2019 to June of 2020. Needless to say June has come and gone and the current schedule now for the first, unmanned launch of the SLS is November of 2021.

Even that is not certain however, because the SLS still has quite a lot of testing to finish first. In fact one big test, a static firing of one of the big solid fuel boosters, was carried out successfully on 2 September. During the test the 53m long booster burned for the full 126 seconds required for an actual flight. See image below. While the data from the test is still being analyzed the initial results indicated a very successful test.

Test of the SLS solid booster rocket, also based on Space Shuttle technology. Currently all indications are that the test was a complete success. (Credit: Spaceflight101)

The biggest test still remaining before next year’s unmanned flight is called ‘Green Run Hot Fire’ and may possibly occur as early as next month in October. For the Green Run Hot Fire test the entire rocket, except for the solid boosters, is held down to a test stand and the four main engines are fired for eight minutes, the time simulating a normal launch. Although all of the different subsystems of the SLS have been tested separately this will be the first time the entire rocket will be tested together.

Testing status for the core section of the SLS as of 10 July 2020. Test 8 could occur as early as late October. (Credit: NASA)

If any problems occur during the Green Run Hot Test it would almost certainly cause yet another delay in that first unmanned test flight. And if that first test flight gets pushed back any further there’s little hope of Artemis reaching the Moon by 2024. In fact because some members of congress are just getting sick and tired of the delays and cost overruns associated with the SLS it might just mean the end of the Artemis program entirely.

Mission plan for the unmanned Artemis 1 flight to the Moon. (Credit: NASA)

Thankfully there’s a bit of better news for Artemis. One of the aerospace companies that are preparing bids for the contract to build the Lunar lander that will actually take the Artemis astronauts down to the Moon’s surface is Blue Origin, the other two being Space X and Dynetics. In late August Blue Origin delivered to NASA’s Johnson Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston a full-scale model of their planned lander.

Mock up of the Blue Origin’s planned Lunar lander is delivered to NASA. (Credit: Tech Explorist)

The model is 12 meters in height and consists of both a planned descent and ascent stage. Although the mock-up does not in any sense function it will allow NASA astronauts to simulate getting down from the crew cabin in the ascent stage to the ground with all of their equipment, and back again. This sort of ergonomic testing is important at this stage because it will not only allow the astronauts to become familiar with the vehicle but if any design flaws are discovered during these tests they can be corrected before construction of the first lander begins.

Artists’s impression of the Blue Origin Lander on the Moon. (Credit: Blue Origin)

Although Blue Origin will be the prime contractor should they win the contract the lander design will actually be a team effort including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper. While Blue Origin concentrates its efforts on the descent stage it is Lockheed Martin who will be primarily responsible for the ascent stage. The team members hope that by splitting up the design efforts it will speed up the design and development of the separate components.

So work is progressing, however slowly on the hardware needed to get Americans back to the Moon, but what about the equipment they’ll be using while on the Moon. For example the old Apollo astronauts had a small Lunar rover vehicle that allowed them to explore more of the Moon’s surface than they could on foot. Are there any plans for an updated Lunar Rover?

The last three Apollo missions, 15-17, took a small Lunar Rover along with them. This is Apollo 15’s. (Credit: The Detroit Bureau)

Well it turns out that it’s the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) who has been given the task of developing the rover as a part of their effort toward the Artemis program. As you might guess JAXA turned to a Japanese company well known for their expertise in motor vehicles, Toyota for help in developing an initial Lunar rover design.

Artist’s impression of Toyota’s concept for a new Lunar Rover. Looks a lot more comfortable! (Credit: Space News)

Named the Lunar Cruiser after Toyota’s famous Land Cruiser the proposed rover would be considerable larger than the Apollo rover. Equipped with a pressurized cabin so that the astronauts can remove their spacesuits while driving across the Moon’s surface the rover will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells and is expected to have a range as much as 10,000 kilometers.

Currently all of these design specifications are preliminary; after all we still a lot of work to do just getting back to the Moon. The eventual goal of the Artemis program is to establish a permanent base on the Moon and that’s when the Lunar Cruiser would become an important piece of equipment.

In 15-20 will we have a Moon Base resembling this artist’s impression? (Credit: European Space Agency)

Still it is nice to speculate about what kind of Lunar Base we may have in about another ten years. I do hope that NASA gets the Artemis program on track. It’s been almost 50 years since the last human set foot on the Moon, when Artemis succeeds in getting us back I hope this time its for good. 

Space News for July 2020.

There are a number of small items to discuss this month so let’s get started.

First of all, things continue to go smoothly for Space X’s first manned mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley have been on the ISS for more than a month now, assisting the regular crew in their maintenance and repair work. Bob Behnken even got to perform an EVA with his fellow American astronaut Chris Cassidy in order to replace a number of the station’s external batteries.

The Space X Dragon capsule attached to the ISS as photographed by astronaut Bob Behnken during his EVA. (Credit: Teslarati.com)

Although NASA has yet to announce exactly when Behnken and Hurley will return to Earth in their Dragon capsule they are probably about halfway through their mission. Before they leave however NASA plans on conducting some kind of emergency station test using the Space X Dragon capsule as a part of the test.

The idea is to pretend that a disaster to the ISS forces all five members of the crew, the three Americans plus two Russian cosmonauts, to use the Space X Dragon capsule as a lifeboat. Now the capsule will not actually undock from the ISS. It will however be quickly woken up and brought back to operational status. All five crewmembers will climb aboard the capsule and remain there for several hours, simulating a real emergency.

The current five member crew of the ISS will participate in an emergency drill using the Dragon capsule as a potential lifeboat. (Credit: Positively Osceola)

Continuing with manned spaceflight NASA has announced the results of their analysis of the problems that occurred during the unmanned Orbital Test Flight (OFT) of Boeing’s Starliner capsule back in December 2020. During that flight a software problem occurred that caused the spacecraft to carry out the wrong maneuver, using up so much fuel that it was unable to rendezvous with the ISS. The capsule was able to return safely to Earth but an initial review of the mission revealed several other serious software issues that went unnoticed during the actual test flight.

The launch and landing of the Boeing Starliner capsule went perfectly on its unmanned test flight. The problems all occurred in between! (Credit: Space.com)

Based upon their review NASA engineers have made a total of 80 recommendations to Boeing that the aerospace firm must address before a second, unmanned OFT can be conducted. Boeing hopes to implement the necessary changes quickly, in fact the engineering effort is already well underway, with an eye towards a launch date late this year for the second OFT.

That would allow Boeing to conduct their first manned flight with Starliner early next year. Once that flight has taken place the US will for the first time ever have two operational space systems for getting astronauts into orbit, both owned and operated by commercial corporations.

In just a couple of years NASA hopes to have three capsules taking their astronauts into space. Here are Orion, Dragon and Starliner (CST-100) compared to the Apollo command module. (Credit: Quora)

NASA also hopes that next year will see the first, unmanned test launch of the long awaited Space Launch System and Orion capsule, a launch vehicle that will not only take astronauts into Earth orbit but beyond. The SLS is in fact the foundation of NASA’s Artemis program with its ambitious goal of returning Americans to the Moon by the year 2024. Pieces of the first SLS rocket are finally, many years behind schedule starting to arrive at Cape Kennedy for assembly with an intention of the initial test launch of the whole rocket sometime in 2021.

If SLS block 1 is ever completed, it’s already five years behind schedule, this is what it will look like on the launch pad. (Credit: NASA)

The Artemis goal of putting Americans back on the Moon is more than just ambitious; it’s expensive. So when on July 7th the US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee released its funding bill for NASA it could only be considered disappointing. As announced the funding for NASA in 2021 will remain at exactly the same level as in the current fiscal year, $22.63 billion dollars. In other words there is no new money of any kind for Artemis.

The House Appropriations Committee in action. With all of the money being directed to fight the Covid-19 pandemic there’s little desire to increase NASA’s budget. (Credit: LegBranch)

That figure of $22.63 billion is about $3 billion less than NASA requested and the worst part is that the monetary shortfall comes from the budget earmarked for the design and development of a new lunar lander, the major piece of hardware currently not yet under construction. Now the budget bill has not yet been passed by congress, more money could be added before it is passed. And even if the budget isn’t increased NASA could undoubtedly divert money from other projects in an effort to keep making progress on the lander.

Nevertheless the Artemis schedule was very tight to begin with and without some real support in congress it is likely that a return to the Moon could, like all of NASA’s manned deep space proposals over the last 30 years, be underfunded and delayed until it just dies.

My final item for today deals not with NASA’s manned space efforts, but rather with its more successful robotic exploration probes. Back on the 6th of January in 2017 I posted an article about a couple of new NASA missions intended to explore several of the asteroids orbiting the Sun in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. One of these missions is called Psyche after the metal rich asteroid that is its target.

Just this month the engineering team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory designing Psyche completed their work and the final design has been approved. This means that work on the spacecraft’s hardware can begin with full assembly and testing to begin in February of 2021.

The design phase of the Psyche space probe is completed but the spacecraft must be built quickly if it is to launch in 2022. (Credit: MarketWatch)

The schedule for Psyche is tight. The spacecraft must be launched in August of 2022 if it is to use a gravity assist from Mars in order to reach its target. Arrival at Psyche will then be in early 2026.