Artemis Project: Humans will return to the moon and build permanent settlements

Author | Feng Ziyang

Audit | Huang Jian

Editor | Zhao Jingyuan

On July 20, 1969, the United States sent three astronauts to the vicinity of the moon through Apollo 11. Two of them (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin) represented the first human landing on the moon. After that, the United States successively sent 10 astronauts to the moon through the Apollo program. However, since Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt left the lunar surface in 1972, no astronauts have set foot on the moon for more than 50 years. The footprints of human exploration of the universe have retreated from the moon 380,000 kilometers away to the Earth space station at an altitude of 400 kilometers.

The lunar module, the moon and the earth were photographed by astronaut Michael Collins who stayed in the Apollo 11 command module (Photo courtesy of NASA)

The disintegration of the Columbia Space Shuttle in 2003 forced NASA to propose a complete manned space program, which was later called the Constellation Program. The Constellation Program also took into account the goal of manned lunar landing and was expected to allow American astronauts to land on the moon again by 2020. However, due to the excessive amount of funds spent on this program, most of the content of the Constellation Program was cancelled in 2010. Although the Constellation Program has been shelved, it does not mean the end of the United States' ambition to return to the moon.

On December 11, 2017, the United States signed Space Policy Directive No. 1, authorizing the launch of moon-centric missions, and the Artemis program began. On March 26, 2019, the United States announced that the manned moon landing would be brought forward to 2024. On May 14 of the same year, NASA announced that the new moon landing program was named after Artemis, the moon goddess in Greek mythology, and announced the logo of the Artemis program in July.

Artemis Project LOGO (Picture from NASA)

The Artemis program aims to allow humans to set foot on the moon again and use the moon as a transit station to lay the foundation for landing on Mars. The Artemis program mainly consists of the Space Launch System (SLS), the Orion spacecraft, the Lunar Gateway space station, the Human Landing System (HLS) - Starship and the Blue Moon lander.

Space Launch System SLS (Image from NASA)

The Artemis program is large in scale and has a very complex mission. It is divided into two phases. The goal of the first phase was originally to land on the South Pole of the Moon before 2024, but it has now been postponed to 2026; the second phase plans to establish a lunar base before 2030.

The first phase consists of three steps. The first step is an unmanned test flight around the moon carried by the Block 1 heavy-lift rocket of the Space Launch System (SLS) carrying the Orion manned spacecraft. This is the Artemis 1 mission. It will take 25 days from takeoff on November 16, 2022 to the recovery of the spacecraft. The main goal of this launch mission is to test the reliability and safety of the Orion spacecraft.

The second step is the "Artemis 2" mission, which is also the first manned flight mission of the "Orion" spacecraft. The plan has been postponed to September 2025. Four NASA astronauts will conduct various tests on the spacecraft's life support system within 10 days to pave the way for the subsequent "Artemis 3" mission.

Rendering of the human landing system (Starship) (Image courtesy of SpaceX)

The third step is the Artemis 3 mission, which plans to use the Block 1 rocket to transport the Orion spacecraft carrying four astronauts to near-moon orbit and dock with SpaceX's human landing system HLS Starship. Two astronauts will transfer from the Orion to the HLS for landing and return, and two astronauts will stay in the spacecraft. After the two astronauts who have landed return to near-moon orbit from the lunar surface, the four will return to Earth together in the Orion. The Artemis 3 program is the first manned lunar landing program in the United States since Apollo 17 in December 1972, and is currently scheduled to be launched in September 2026.

Artemis 3 mission overview (Image courtesy of NASA)

The first step of the second phase of Artemis is "Artemis 4", which plans to send four astronauts to the first lunar space station "Gateway" via the Block 1B launch vehicle, install the "International Habitation Module (I-Hab)" of the "Gateway", and the "Gateway" will become the astronaut exploration base for the moon and future human missions to Mars; then take the HLS starship to land on the moon. This plan is expected to be launched in September 2028.

The second step of the second phase of the Artemis program, Artemis 5, is scheduled to be launched in September 2029, and will also send four astronauts to the Gateway Space Station. These astronauts will be brought to the lunar surface by Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander. In addition, the mission will install the European Space Agency's refueling infrastructure and communications module (ESPRIT) and the Canadian-made robotic arm system on the Gateway Space Station. The mission also delivered and used NASA's manned lunar rover (LTV).

Artemis' subsequent missions (Artemis 6-11) are expected to be launched between 2030 and 2035. They will establish humanity's first lunar base, and the personnel have not yet been determined.

Art concept map of the "Gateway" lunar space station (Image courtesy of NASA)

At present, the successful launch of Artemis 1 has greatly increased NASA's confidence in manned lunar landing, but the delay of Artemis 2 and 3 has a great impact on the overall plan, which faces many technical challenges. First, after the completion of the Artemis 1 mission, NASA discovered that the Orion spacecraft had a great safety hazard: in the "Artemis 1" mission, the unmanned "Orion" spacecraft had a large area of ​​erosion in the insulation material during the return to the atmosphere, and the cause has not been found so far; the valve circuit and emergency escape system of the spacecraft's life support system also have design defects, which is also the main reason for the delay of some subsequent Artemis missions. Secondly, the development progress of the human landing system "Starship" developed by SpaceX is too slow, and explosions occurred in two test flights in 2023, which directly led to the delay of the Artemis 3 plan. In addition, the extravehicular spacesuit of the Artemis 3 plan is still in the early stages of development, 20 months later than the planned delivery time. Following the postponement of the Artemis program, the failure of the Peregrine 1 earlier this year has undoubtedly intensified public doubts about NASA's reliance on private enterprises. In the future, the Artemis program will face more tests.

References

(1) Artemis, NASA, https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis/

(2) Artemis program, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#See_also

(3) Artemis 1,Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_1

(4) Artemis2, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_2

(5) Artemis3, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_3

(6) Artemis4, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_4

(7) Artemis5, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_5

(8) NASA has no choice but to postpone its return to the moon. The reason behind this is not simple, Global Times, https://world.huanqiu.com/article/4G8SU0XrrXw

(9) NASA Shares Progress Toward Early Artemis Moon Missions with Crew, NASA official, https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-shares-progress-toward-early-artemis-moon-missions-with-crew/

(10) Chen Zeyu, Progress of the US Artemis Manned Lunar Landing Program, Space Electronics Technology, Issue 06, 2022

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