Exploration Ground System teams processed the Artemis I booster segments and prepared to stack them up front and rear assemblies at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Space Launch System (SLS)’s rocket booster segments arrived on June 15 by trains traveling from Utah near the Northrop Grumman facility, where they were produced. Northrop Grumman has already produced the booster segments for the Artemis II mission and is in the process of making the rocket engines for the Artemis III. The SLS twin solid rocket boosters provide more than 75 percent of the power to launch the rocket on the Artemis missions to the moon. Credit: NASA
By 2020, more than half by, NASA is ready for a busy rest of the year and 2021.
Following the recent successful launch of a March rover and safely bring astronauts home from low Earth orbit aboard a new commercial spaceflight, NASA is looking for more explorations only now through 2021. The agency sends the first woman and next man to the Moon in 2024, establishing sustainable exploration by the end of the decade as part of the Artemis program, as you prepare for human exploration of Mars.
Artist concept of Human Landing System and astronauts on the surface of the moon. Credit: NASA
“By putting the health and safety of the NASA team first, we have been able to navigate the challenges of safe navigation. COVID-19 and keep our missions moving forward as much as possible, “said NASA Director Jim Bridenstine.” This year we will be hitting several important milestones for Artemis, including conducting a major test of our Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. We also plan to take an asteroid sample and study an ocean of satellite to name a few missions ahead. These wonderful NASA achievements have been made possible thanks to strong promises from the President and Congress to fund and support NASA’s budgets and usher in a new era of reconnaissance for the US space agency. “
SpaceX Crew-1. Credits: NASA
2020 Perseveres
Among the activities the agency has for the rest of 2020, NASAs SpaceX Crew-1 mission is scheduled to launch from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station this fall, following certification of the system by NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The mission will be the first in a series of regular, rotating flights with astronauts to the orbital laboratory, as it marks 20 years of continuous human presence aboard the station Nov. 2. Flying four crew members on Crew-1 will expand the station’s crew to seven, effectively doubling the time for crew members to support research studies that advance scientific knowledge and prepare them for human space further exploration. Boeing is also on deck to conduct a second unauthorized flight test for the Commercial Crew Program, before flying a crew flight test in 2021 to meet certification requirements of programs. This is an important step in ensuring that multiple providers have access to the space station from American soil.
In the U.S. first asteroid sample return mission, NASAs OSIRIS-REx will make a touch in October, grab and go to Bennu to collect a small sample to return to Earth.
NASA also continues to make significant progress toward the first unusual flight test of SLS and the Orion spacecraft and plans to conduct a hot fire test in November. Known as the Green Run, this critical milestone includes the rocket’s massive core stage and four RS-25 engines in a test state. Stacking operations will begin with the boosters of solid rocket on the mobile launcher in late fall after the hot fire and will continue into 2021 when the nuclear phase arrives. Engineers put Orion to the finish line so it is ready for attachment, allowing us to send astronauts one step closer to orbit the moon.
NASA will also test a suite of land technologies aboard a commercial spaceflight vision. As the main experiment of the rocket, the tested technologies will support safer and more accurate future landings on the moon.
Finally, the agency is also expected to launch the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite in November, which will still collect the most accurate data on sea levels.
2021 to Bring More Firsts
Next year, it will be adapted to one of NASA’s busiest yet.
Following an initial design phase, NASA is expected to announce if Blue Origin, Dynetics and / or SpaceX advance with their human landing systems, one of which will be the first private company to land American astronauts safely on the moon in 2024.
Illustration of NASA’s DART spacecraft and the Italian Space Agency’s (ASI) LICIACube prior to impact on the Didymos binary system. Credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Steve Gribben
When NASA’s Perseverance rover lands on Mars in February, the robot astrobiologist / geologist will look for signs of ancient life and collect rock and soil samples. As part of the mission, NASA will deploy the rover’s Ingenuity helicopter in the first demonstration of rotorcraft on another planet. The agency will also try to produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere – a critical step for future human exploration of the Red Planet.
At the end of July, NASA will launch the first test for planetary defense. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, about the size of a small car, will deliberately crash into an asteroid moon in the fall of 2022 to change its motion. This is just a test, because the asteroid Didymos still its practiced moon Dimorphos poses every threat to our planet.
NASA will send the SLS core stage to Kennedy earlier this year for integration with the Orion spacecraft. Artemis I, the first developed flight test from SLS and Orion, is on track to begin its month-long mission around the month through fall. The Orion crew module for Artemis III will be delivered to Kennedy, where the crew module for Artemis II is already being prepared for its mission.
NASA engineers test the X-57 Maxwell, NASA’s first all-electric X-plane, through its initial telemetry tests at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, and test the aircraft’s ability to transmit data to teams on the ground. Credit: NASA / Ken Ulbrich
Astrobotic and intuitive machines will each launch their first commercial flights for Lunar Payload Services to the Moon each fall, delivering a suite of payloads to the lunar surface ahead of future Artemis crews with crews. These will be the first American robot missions to land on the Moon in 50 years.
In October, NASA will launch Lucy as the first mission to study the Trojan asteroids – remnants of ancient material that formed the outer planets, now the Sun orbited the distance of Jupiter. Towards the end of that month, NASA will launch the James Webb Space Telescope, the flagship astrophysics mission that will explore further worlds and study the first generation of galaxies that formed at the beginning of the universe.
In 2021, NASA aviation teams will complete construction and prepare for the first flight of the X-59 QueSST, our low-altitude supersonic X aircraft that will provide data that could lead to faster long-distance travel across the whole world. The agency’s X-57 Maxwell, the agency’s first all-electric experimental aircraft, will also make its first flight next year. The agency’s aero researchers will also launch an effort to promote electric propulsion for large commercial transports with an electric propulsion for flight propulsion, helping to develop a fuel- and cost-efficient alternative to traditional jet-powered aircraft. .
Also next year, NASA will announce a new class of astronaut candidates, launch a new demonstration with laser communication, and send a CubeSat with a microwave oven to a unique, elliptical lunar base where the agency plans to send the Artpis’ Gateway outpost.
“With our rover landing on Mars, an asteroid protection from space testing, the launch of the Webb Telescope, and the Artemis I mission among other activities on the horizon, we have another big, big year ahead of it. space agency of America, “said Bridenstine.
