NASA won't fly astronauts to the moon in 2024 — for good reason | Mashable.
NASA won't fly astronauts to the moon in 2024 — for good reason
Artemis II astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, front, and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen train for the upcoming mission. Credit: NASA |
NASA's first astronaut mission into deep space and around the moon won't happen this year, agency officials say, citing several technical and hardware issues that could jeopardize crew safety.
The announcement of a delay for the Artemis II mission, previously slated for this November, came during a news teleconference on Jan. 9. The space agency is now working toward a September 2025 launch, with Artemis III, the first moon-landing attempt with astronauts in a half-century, also pushed back to September 2026.
Building extra time into the schedule will allow engineers to conduct more tests on the Orion moonship, Space Launch System rocket, landing system, new spacesuits, and Gateway, a yet-to-be-built lunar space station. NASA officials said new circuitry and battery issues have surfaced that will need to be addressed, and they continue to investigate a problem with the spacecraft's protective heat shield.
"We are facing challenges, both technical and just dealing with going back to the moon, but the Artemis team is solving them," said Jim Free, NASA associate administrator.
The Artemis II mission is expected to build upon the success of Artemis I, an uncrewed test flight of Orion that sent the moonship on a 1.4 million-mile voyage in 2022. The sequel mission will test-drive the spacecraft for about 10 days with human passengers, whizzing by the moon without ever landing on it.
A successful Artemis II flight would pave the way for NASA to put astronauts back on the lunar surface during Artemis III. The agency has promised that mission will see a woman and person of color walk on the face of the moon for the first time.
Even if Artemis II had not required extra time, the subsequent moon-landing mission would still need to be delayed because of lagging SpaceX progress, according to NASA. The space agency tapped billionaire Elon Musk's company to develop a human landing system version of his Starship with a $4 billion contract for Artemis III and IV.
"We are facing challenges, both technical and just dealing with going back to the moon, but the Artemis team is solving them."
As part of the deal, SpaceX will need to demonstrate an uncrewed test flight to the moon beforehand. So far the company has attempted two Earth-orbiting flights, with both Starships exploding before reaching space.
The Artemis II crew, announced last year, includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Hammock Koch, along with the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen. They are expected to become the first people to fly into deep space since the United States' final Apollo mission in 1972.
NASA's decision to delay Artemis II was first hinted at publicly during a call with reporters in August, when space agency officials said they were still investigating damage to the spacecraft's heat shield that occurred on its way back to Earth. Though the crew registered concern about the problem, NASA declined to discuss a final diagnosis — or any changes to plans because of it — until early this year.
"You know every time you see me coming, you take a step back, because I'm coming about the heat shield," said Wiseman, the Artemis II crew commander, during that call. "This crew, we're not going to launch until we know we're ready, until our team knows the vehicle's ready, and we will keep the pressure on."
During the maiden voyage, Orion came home faster and hotter than any spacecraft prior, traveling at 24,500 mph in 5,000 degree Fahrenheit temperatures. NASA expected to see some charring, but not to this degree, said Howard Hu, manager of Orion, about a year ago.
"We're seeing larger, like, more little pieces that are coming off versus being ablated," he said then, referring to a type of heat-driven evaporation engineers expected.
NASA continues to study the heat shield and now says it will present its final analysis this spring. But regardless of the unexpected damage, if astronauts had been inside Orion during Artemis I, they would not have been harmed, Amit Kshatriya, deputy associate administrator of the moon-to-Mars program, told Mashable during the teleconference.
"They would have not sensed any disturbance inside the vehicle, there would not have been any excessive heating on the structure, and the guidance would have put them exactly where the Navy needed to recover them," he said. "There would not have been any impact toward the crew safety if we had that exact same design."
The Artemis II foursome are anticipated to hold a place in history as the first space travelers of Artemis, the new exploration campaign named after Apollo's goddess twin. It's the beginning of NASA's ambitious plan to send humans to Mars by the late 2030s, preparing them for the harsh conditions of another world far less hospitable than Earth.
Topics NASA
Because they cant 🤣
ReplyDeleteyou probably think the earth is flat
Deleteno 🤣
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DeleteCommercial airliners are a hoax too. You can't really fly from one city or country to another.
Deletehttps://birdsarentreal.com/
Deletefool
DeleteUniversal studios Lot 36 is booked til 2025?
ReplyDeleteI would like you to add me on Facebook Very nice publication... I love it, I admit Possible to be friends
DeleteThey never did
ReplyDeleteprove it
DeleteCommercial airliners are a hoax too. You can't really fly from one city or country to another.
Deletewith a good telescope, you can actually see the footprints on the Moon.
DeleteBut yeah, according to you, you have an enterprise involving thousands of people, including mission control, the astronauts themselves, and somehow we’ve managed to keep the “truth” hidden.
By the way, the Soviets would have loved to have proved we didn’t go to the moon. Frankly, it would have cost us more money to fake the moon landing then it would have just to go to the moon.
Its inexplicable how they did it before numerous times. Either this generation of engineers are incompetant unable to get it together with significantly more advanced technology, or they are suffering from risk paralysis due to the climate of overregulation and litigation.
ReplyDeletethe latter
Deletewe spent 2.5% of GDP every year for a decade on Apollo. We currently spend less than one half a percent on the total NASA budget today and only half of that .3% goes to manned space flight. What’s inexplicable is the public’s complete ignorance of these issues.
Deleteyou actually believe they went 🤣🤣
DeleteI think our society has a different risk tolerance today. Remember, the space program was born out of the test flight experience. For example, they built the bell X1 to try and break the sound barrier. They put a guy in the aircraft, it would crash. A few days later, they would send the next pilot.
DeleteAll of the original astronauts were test pilots. So these are folks accustomed to taking risks.
So there was a more daring culture, and an understanding that this was new and risky. As space travel has become routine, so to speak, and we’ve started sending astronauts who aren’t test pilots, along with a change in our culture, we are more risk averse.
When Apollo one caught fire, they pay their respects to the crew, and then got Apollo II ready.
Even with the failures of Apollo 13, the timeline for Apollo 14 wasn’t significantly altered. If Apollo 13 happened today, it would be at least a decade before we tried going to the moon again.
After the Boeing hatch diabolical, NASA is considering back using the old safest way…greenscreen and camera FX
ReplyDeleteThey never have.
ReplyDeleteprove it
Deleteprove they have.
DeleteRetro reflectors left on the moon by Apollo astronauts where scientists can bounce lasers off them from earth and get readings back from that location on the moon back to them on earth
Deleteyou’ve seen these? So buzz aldrin is lying?
Deletehttps://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10818/
Deletehttps://www.planetary.org/space-images/apollo-11-from-lro
Deleteno. Clearly cgi. Look up Werner con braun and the references of the firmament in the Bible. That is your homework for the night. God speed.
Deleteyou’re a special kind of stupid.
DeleteCommercial airliners are a hoax too. You can't really fly from one city or country to another.
Deletewhat does that have to do with breaking the firmament and going to the moon? 🤣🤣🤣
DeleteBecause TV isn’t black and white anymore lol
ReplyDeleteShocker
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ReplyDeleteI would like you to add me on Facebook Very nice publication... I love it, I admit Possible to be friends
DeleteVan Allen Belt...still not possible
ReplyDeleteGiven the indicated radiation dosages in Rads/sec for each zone, what will be the dosages that the
Deleteastronauts receive in each zone?
3. What will be the total radiation dosage in Rads for the transit through the belts?
4. Some people believe that the Apollo moon landings were a hoax because astronauts would have
been instantly killed in the radiation belts. According to the US Occupation Safety and Health Agency
(OSHA) a lethal radiation dosage is 300 Rads in one hour. What is your answer to the 'moon landing
hoax' believers?
Note: According to radiation dosimeters carried by Apollo astronauts, their total dosage for the entire trip to the moon and return
was not more than 2 Rads over 6 day” https://www.nasa.gov/.../uploads/2010/06/smiii_problem7.pdf
so, I never mentioned anything about radiation...pilots, astronauts, interviews all have direct quotes stating it as fact..."we never went there", ' we still can't pass low orbit space ', etc for decades...nuff for me...
DeleteCommercial airliners are a hoax too. You can't really fly from one city or country to another.
Deleteit’s stating that the Van Allen belt is safe to go though the radiation is basically harmless. And he was stating why they didn’t go back to the moon because of money and if you watch the whole interview and not just a clip
DeleteLol, but they did it using 1969 technology, yeah right.
ReplyDeleteCommercial airliners are a hoax too. You can't really fly from one city or country to another.
DeleteI love your reply. I actually believed as well until a few years ago, then saw how NASA would never go back to the moon. Really, it should be so easy if it's possible.
Delete🎪
ReplyDeleteThey Can’t.
ReplyDeleteScam
ReplyDeleteKeep testing. You can do it.
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ReplyDeleteIt's a waste of money
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ReplyDeleteBecause the Clangers haven't said they can and besides they've ran out of soup.
ReplyDeleteWith 3/4 Presidential candidates being science-deniers I think NASA is saving its budget for golden-parachutes in 2025 for when NASA is gone.
ReplyDeleteReason being, because they can't get there
ReplyDeleteI would like you to add me on Facebook Very nice publication... I love it, I admit Possible to be friends
DeleteI would like you to add me on Facebook Very nice publication... I love it, I admit Possible to be friends
ReplyDeleteYeah because they don't want them to drown in their helmets...🙄😂
ReplyDeleteI would like you to add me on Facebook Very nice publication... I love it, I admit Possible to be friends
DeleteThey never did lol , Fake moon landing exposed
ReplyDeleteCommercial airliners are a hoax too. You can't really fly from one city or country to another.
DeleteIs it cause the rockets aren’t lithium batteries
ReplyDeleteBut they did 1969 in a tin foil bucket 🤡😂
ReplyDeletewe Americans 🇺🇸 actually did go to the moon in 1969 and again in 1972 we have the evidence to prove it.
DeleteThe only reason why we stop going to the moon was only because the Nixon Administration canceled the Apollo moon program and was eventually replaced with the space shuttle program.
Sending humans to the moon is a money problem not a technology problem NASA’s budget is only 25 billion dollars it’s not enough money to fund a human mission to the moon.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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BECAUSE THEY CANT
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ReplyDeleteBecause they can't
ReplyDeleteThey are learning how to do it. First time ain’t easy.
ReplyDelete