Fifty years ago this month, mission managers at the US space agency gave the final go-ahead for a trip to the moon. Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17 and the first man to walk on the moon, believed that it would be not too long into the future before astronauts return to the moon.
Artemis 1, the most powerful rocket ship in history, will attempt to close that decades-long gap four minutes after midnight Wednesday.
The success of the test mission will pave the way for a crewed landing in four years. All men from the Apollo flights between 1969 and 1972 who classify as moonwalkers will be added to the list with Artemis 3.
In an interview with Newsweek, Bill Nelson said that the purpose of the Artemis program was to go to Mars.
This is a turning point in the history of the world.
After a number of delays through the summer and early fall, the space agency is ready to launch on Wednesday. Engineers were unable to fix an unrelated fuel leak after discovering an engine cooling problem.
The threat of Hurricane Ian prevented the space agency from launching the SLS rocket in October.
Some second-guessed Nasa's decision to leave Artemis exposed on its Cape Canaveral, Florida, launchpad in recent days because of the fury of Hurricane Nicole.
Engineers at the Kennedy space center performed a post-hurricane inspection before it was declared fit to fly.
Jim Free, Nasa's associate administrator for exploration systems development, said that if they didn't design it to be out there in harsh weather, they would have picked the wrong launch spot.
Delays are part of the space business.
When it's ready, we'll go. On a test flight we don't go until then. He said after the September scrub that they would make sure it was right before putting four humans up on the top.
Artemis 2 is a 10-day interim mission that will be used to test new life-preservation systems and equipment for long-term spaceflights.
The crew for Artemis 1 includes sensor-rigged mannequins, a soft toy and a gravity detector.
If Artemis 1 doesn't succeed, we won't get to Artemis 2.
The reasons for wanting to go back to the moon have changed with the technology. The agency wants to establish a long-term human presence, including the construction of a lunar base camp, in order to be in a position to send people to Mars by the mid-20th century.
Scientific discovery, economic benefits, building a global alliance, and inspiring a new generation of explorers are some of the goals of the "Artemis generation"
The Moon to Mars vision, of which the Artemis program is just one part, has a wider brief of pulling in international and commercial partners to deep space exploration.
The desire to keep the US ahead of Russia and China is not stated.
The Artemis program's $93 billion price tag, including $4.1 billion for each of the first launches, is unsustainable according to analysts. Billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule are what they say.
Even if Republicans take the House and the nation's purse strings from Democrats, the moon to Mars program will still be funded.
The support is bipartisan and tied to the interests of the people. John Logsdon is the founder of the Space Policy Institute.
If everything goes according to plan, we will send humans to Mars.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
