Artemis I, NASA’s moon rocket withstands tropical storm
If you are someone who keep close tabs on space news, you must be aware of NASA’s Artemis I mission. It is the US space agency’s maiden mission of its Artemis programme which aims to establish permanent human presence on and around the lunar surface by the end of this decade.
And now, ahead of its much-anticipated launch on 16th November, Artemis I survived a Category 1 hurricane turned tropical storm named Nicole that struck Florida’s Space Coast (Kennedy Space Centre) recently. Its result was strong winds (82 miles/hour) with torrential rains. But fortunately, the Moon rocket remains majorly unscathed and would need bare minimum repairs. The damages include loose caulking (sealing materials used in construction) on the Orion spacecraft, water allocation in the arm of the capsule that helps connect Artemis I to the launch centre and torn rain cover of one of the SLS engines (able to withstand wind speed up to 85 miles/hour). NASA teams are working their way through these minor injuries and are hopeful to resolve them prior to the lift-off. The goal is to power up both the SLS engines and Orion at the earliest in order to perform specific engineering tests on mission hardware before the launch.
Already, Artemis I has encountered several delays. For instance, due to technical glitches, it got pushed back from late August to late September. Unfortunately, in September, Hurricane Ian further postponed it. And now, another hurricane almost ruined the November 16th launch plans. Surprisingly, even though Nicole wreaked havoc, Artemis I was sturdy enough to withstand it.
For those unaware, Artemis I is NASA’s planned uncrewed mission to the Moon that will be launched with the help of the spacecraft named Orion Capsule. This spacecraft is scheduled to carry the mega lunar rocket Artemis I to the lunar orbit and back. The goal is to determine the first step of the Artemis programme and check how ready are the capsule and the SLS (Space Launch System) engines for upcoming crewed missions. Earlier called Exploration Mission I, Artemis I will last somewhere in between 26 and 42 days. Out of this, six days will be solely spent in the distant retrograde orbit (an orbit on the Moon suitable for spacecrafts to hover as it is highly stable and interacts well with planet-moon system). The mission if launched successfully will also deploy 10 miniature satellites for lunar exploration called CubeSat. Interestingly, Artemis I will be followed by two other sequel crewed missions, Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 that will be set off by 2025.