The Mega Moon rocket will be launched in August, according to officials at NASA.
NASA hopes to put humans on the moon for the first time in 50 years with the help of the SLS. Live Science reported that NASA officials have pegged the launch day for the most powerful rocket ever created to take a trip to the far side of the moon and back as August 29th. The first uncrewed mission will put the first woman and first person of color on the lunar companion.
The Mega Moon rocket is a new launch vehicle that makes us even more excited about it. There are a few reasons why
The Apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s was one of the highlights of the Space Age. During the Apollo missions, the Saturn V rocket carried people to the moon, so it is likely the measure against which all other launch vehicles should be compared.
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The SLS will be in Block 1 for the first mission in the Artemis program, which NASA hopes will eventually bring the first woman and person of color to the moon. The Mega Moon rocket will be capped by the crew vehicle and will be 322 feet tall, making it the tallest rocket in the world.
It will be slightly shorter than the Saturn V because of this. The space shuttle system has a thrust of 7.8 million pounds. It will be possible to haul more than 30 tons to the moon. According to Space.com, less of the Mega Moon rocket's carrying capacity will be wasted on the different rocket stages and fuel, which will make it an overall better cargo moving vehicle.
SLS will be better in the future. The Block 2 configuration, which will have an additional upper stage, will be able to bring more than 50 tons of cargo to the moon, according to NASA. The rocket will be able to deliver crews and material to Mars and should allow exploration of almost anywhere in the solar system.
The Mega Moon rocket's core stage contains four of the workhorses of the Artemis program. NASA has 16 of them on hand and they were used to launch the space shuttle. These old pieces of space hardware have been upgraded with new computer controllers to make sure they can handle Mega Moon rocket launches.
The rockets are powered by 730,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Solid rocket boosters will be attached to the side of the core module. According to NASA, each of these can deliver 3.6 million pounds of thrust, which is roughly the weight of a 17-story building. 6 US tons of polybutadiene acrylonitrile propellant will be burned by the boosters every second, making them the most powerful solid boosters ever built.
According to NASA, the SLS's engines will give an equivalent power to 160,000 Corvette engines. This will be increased to 9.2 million pounds of thrust, 20% more than the Saturn V and the equivalent of 208,000 Chevrolet engines. According to the agency, a single engine could generate enough power to illuminate a length of street that would reach the moon and back and then circle Earth 15 times.
NASA wants to land the first woman and first person of color on the moon. The Artemis II mission, which will fly around the moon sometime after the uncrewed Artemis I mission, will be the first time that four astronauts will travel to space in the same capsule.
According to Space.com, Artemis III is expected to take people to the moon no earlier than 25 years from now. NASA wants to establish a base camp near the moon's south pole in order to eventually build a station around the moon. Humans on the moon's surface will allow for quicker and more complicated explorations.
NASA's top science goals for Artemis include understanding planetary processes on airless worlds, characterization of lunar ices, and learning more about the history of the Earth.
The Mega Moon rocket will set the stage for further exploration of Mars by making it easier to undertake a robotic sample-return mission and teaching NASA how to mitigate the risks involved in sending humans deeper into the solar system. Scientists can dream of even more ambitious projects, such as collecting samples from the geysers of Enceladus, because it is so powerful.
It was originally published on Live Science
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