The Orion spacecraft successfully reaches the moon

Early Monday, NASA’s Orion capsule passed 130 kilometers above the lunar surfaceIt’s a huge achievement in a mission designed to test the US space agency’s ability to one day return astronauts to the moon.

After flying over the moon, Orion, which is designed to carry astronauts but only carry inanimate science payloads on its first mission, is expected to travel more than 40,000 miles past the far side of the moon, the farthest for a spacecraft designed to transport humans. Humans have come.

This is all part of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to create a lunar base that can permanently host astronauts for the first time in history.hoping to open the way to one day reach Mars.

The Artemis I mission began Wednesday morning when NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket launched its Orion capsule into space, cementing the rocket as the most powerful operational launch vehicle ever built. The SLS rocket’s thrust is 15 percent greater than that of the Saturn V, which fueled the moon landings in the 20th century.

Currently, Orion is on a 25 1/2 day trip to circumnavigate the Moon.

El sobrevuelo de la superficie lunar este lunes fue lo Mas cerca que la capsula Orion estará de la Luna antes de entrar en una “órbita retrógrada distante”, lo que significa que rodeará la Luna en la dirección opuesta a la que la Luna viaja alrededor de Earth.

This tour is intended to “test drive” the Orion capsule, Michael Sarafin, NASA’s Artemis mission manager, said last week.

After returning to the moon, The Orion capsule is expected to return to Earth and make a soft landing in the Pacific Ocean on December 11th.

The landing site is located off the coast of San Diego, and NASA recovery ships will be waiting nearby to bring the craft to safety, a practice for future missions involving astronauts. This time it will also attempt to recover some of the science instruments on board that collected data to help NASA understand how astronauts will be affected by future flights.

Sarafin told reporters on Friday that NASA had to fix more than a dozen problems with the Orion capsule, but overall, the spacecraft is doing “really well.”

One of the problems that arose was with Orion’s star tracking, a system that uses a map of the universe to tell engineers on Earth how to orient the spacecraft. Some of the data readings weren’t as expected, but NASA officials attributed that to the learning curve involved in piloting a new spacecraft.

(With info from CNN)

See also:

Chinese scientists discover a new mineral on the moon (+ video)