Questions tagged [artemis-program]

NASA's manned lunar program authorized by Space Policy Directive 1 in December 2017 with the goal of landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon and the first person on the Moon's far side (on the South Pole) as well as establishing a permanent base on the Moon.

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Why will Artemis II not orbit the Moon?

The Artemis II mission will loiter in an elliptical, high-Earth orbit before the Orion uses its own propulsion to complete the trans lunar injection (tli), thus using the fuel it might’ve otherwise ...
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Why does the ICPS carry extra hydrogen?

The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) of the Space Launch System is essentially the Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (DCSS) lifted from the Delta IV rocket. However, among other minor changes, the ...
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SLS Block 2: Original thrust

In older graphics depicting the evolution of the SLS vehicle, it states that the Block 2 upgrade was to produce 11.9 million lbs of thrust. At some point in the last few years, however, this has ...
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SLS SRB sound suppression system

The Shuttle, in addition to the water deluge system, used a series of red nylon bags filled with water at the base of each SRB for additional sound suppression. Does the SLS, whose boosters produce ~...
4 votes
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What will be the pressure inside the Orion spacecraft?

On wikipedia, I believe that it will be the same as at sea level (101 kPa), or reduced (55 - 70 kPa). But what pressure will be normal in the cabin? What will the pressure be there during the flight?
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Will astronauts on the Lunar Gateway beat the record Apollo 13 set for furthest distance from Earth?

This questiom states that the distance was 400038km with a lunar altitude of 254 km. As gateway will have a max. 70,000 km distance from the lunar south pole, it may break the record. However, because ...
2 votes
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How much mass will Artemis landers deliver to the moon?

Is there an estimate of the mass Artemis Landers must be able to deliver to the Lunar surface? I am interested in the total mass - vehicle and payload on arrival - as well as a breakdown of how much ...
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Why was the Orion spacecraft slower after the return powered flyby burn?

I'm closely following NASA's Artemis 1 mission and all the broadcasts. This week the return powered flyby burn took place, the Orion spacecraft flew around the moon and started its way back home. ...
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Are there any asteroids between the Earth and the Moon which could also serve as a base

I read about this tennis court sized asteroid https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/nov/11/near-earth-asteroid-is-a-fragment-from-the-moon-say-scientists It appears to be between the Moon & ...
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How does the Orion communicate with Earth?

Early renders of the Orion spacecraft show a deployed high-gain antenna dish like on the Apollo CSM. The Orion that actually materialised has no such thing. What does it use instead?
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Reason/meaning of dot/dash pattern in Orion capsule

On the interior pictures of the Orion capsule there is a distinct pattern visible above the Callisto tech demo console: Source: NASA, highlight by me What is the reason/meaning of this pattern? My ...
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Why not crash the ICPS into the Moon?

The Wikipedia article on Artemis 1 says that an ICPS disposal burn was performed after spacecraft separation. This was intended to send the ICPS into heliocentric orbit after passing the Moon. Why ...
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Orion re-entry velocity: Why is it higher than Apollo?

Title says it all. I am puzzled why Orion will be traveling faster than Apollo.
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Why does the the Artemis I translunar flight (have to) last 6 days while the Apollo fights to the Moon lasted only about 3 days? [duplicate]

Does the Artemis I flight to the Moon have to last so long compared to the about 3 days long lasting Apollo flights because the Orion spacecraft has to enter into a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) ? Or ...
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To what direction is Artemis 1 facing while traveling between earth and moon?

While playing around with the animation on https://www.nasa.gov/specials/trackartemis/ I noticed that Orion capsule seems not be pointing directly into its direction of flight. If this would be case ...
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How can SLS be ready to carry humans after just a single test flight?

Artemis I is the maiden flight of the SLS, and the very next SLS mission, Artemis II, is planned to already carry a human crew. I don't understand how this is possible. How can a hyper-complex rocket, ...
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Why wouldn't NASA save Orion if Artemis 1 failed

According to last night's NASA broadcast (and other sources), the launch abort system (LAS) system for Artemis 1 was inert (except for the apparently separate disposal motor). In the event of an ...
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What is the point of the Artemis program when we had Apollo? [closed]

Considering that NASA evidently already know how to land astronauts on the Moon (thanks to Apollo), what is the point of the Artemis program? For example, the just-launched Artemis 1 is 1) uncrewed ...
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Are Artemis missions launched into a free return trajectory like the Apollo program?

The Apollo program spacecrafts were put on a free return trajectory after during the TLI maneuver. Does Artemis mission also put crafts on a free return trajectory? If no, what are the redundancy ...
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Are the Artemis 1 secondary payloads still viable?

Artemis 1 carries ten cubesats as secondary payloads. One of the concerns prior to the last rollback, in September, was that the batteries were almost out of charge and that there was no way to ...
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Cause for Artemis Spacecraft bumpy surface

I watched NASA's YT transmission (TL code 04:06:30) of the launch and I noticed a bumpy surface on the middle section while it deployed the Solar arrays and shortly before separation of the mid-...
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Why does Artemis I need a launch window?

I know that a rocket needs to launch at the right time in order to be able to reach a specific point in orbit (e.g. the ISS). This launch window is quite small (correct?). But why does Artemis I ...
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Will or could real-time HDTV broadcasts be possible from the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis I spaceflight around the Moon?

Earhrise, image taken from Apollo 8 by William Anders, Credits: NASA Starting with Apollo 8, there where 4 (!) crewed missions to the Moon in one year time ! (Apollo 8, 10,11 and 12) Will or could ...
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From where will the planned Artemis I launch be visible?

The latest planned Artemis I launch window is 69 minutes long, opening 2022-11-14T00:07:00−05:00, which if used will lead to a launch in complete darkness. I'm interested in the possibility of ...
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Are the Artemis Missions direct ascent?

I’ve been looking at “exploded” SLS rockets, where the stages are all shown, and there never seems to be a lunar lander. Does that mean that the Orion Spacecraft lands on the moon, or will it have a ...
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Would Artemis 1 have blown up on the pad if NASA had been unaware of (or ignored) the errors that resulted in the launches being aborted? [closed]

Artemis 1 has had several unsuccessful tests. We've seen reports of "hydrogen leaks", "engine failures", "sensor malfunctions", "stuck valves", "fueling ...
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What is the differences in between SLS Block I and SLS Block 2?

Other than mass to orbit how will the SLS Block 1 differ from SLS Block 2? What differences in construction will be made ?
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What is the cabling on the exterior of the SLS solid rocket boosters that wasn't on the shuttle solid rocket boosters?

I noticed what appears to be foamed-over cabling running roughly parallel to the systems tunnel on the exterior of the SLS Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). The cabling appears to run all the way from the ...
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What is the difference between the solid fuel Boosters of the Shuttle and Artemis?

The Shuttle boosters had 4 segments and Artemis has 5. What are the differences in total mass, thrust and burn time? Is the thrust profile (thrust over time) the same?
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Media coverage of Artemis vs Apollo

I remember the launch of Apollo 7 - the first crewed flight of the Apollo spacecraft. I was in grade school; we all gathered in the gym/auditorium to watch it on live TV. I was about 9 in 1967, and ...
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Will the Orion glass cockpit with CCD be tested with prospective astronauts on the ground during the upcoming Artemis 1 test flight ? If not, why?

Image credit: DesignNews article: "Exclusive: A Closer Look at NASA's Orion Glass Cockpit" Will there be video cameras onboard the Orion spacecraft that registrate the glass cockpit displays ...
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What will the live video and audio quality be like when astronauts next set foot on the moon?

What will the live video and audio quality be like when we watch an Artemis crewmember set foot on the moon? The quality of the original Apollo footage from the 1960's is terrible by today's standards....
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Space Suit for Artemis, why two contracts instead of only one?

NASA has selected two companies to make spacesuits for its Artemis moon program and future International Space Station (ISS) missions. Teams led by Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace (with ILC Dover ...
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What would have happened if lightning struck the Orion LES instead of the umbilical tower?

Yesterday, a lightning struck the SLS' umbilical tower during a scrubbed wet dress rehearsal. Is it normal for a lightning to strike the umbilical tower instead of the 3 lightning arresters around the ...
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How can Artemis 1 take so much longer for Earth-Lunar transit than the Apollo missions did?

The Artemis I mission will take 8-14 days to get from Earth to the Moon. Apollo 11 only took 3 days. Similarly the return will be 9-19 days for Artemis I and just over 2 days for Apollo 11. Why is the ...
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What happens to the propellant in a wet dress rehearsal?

The Artemis 1 mission is going to do a wet dress rehearsal where the rocket will be filled with propellant and the launch sequence will continue until almost the last second. The launch sequence will ...
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Will the Artemis I SLS do a static fire on the pad following rollout?

Following the rollout for the Artemis I wet dress rehearsal, or the rollout for launch, will the core stage perform a static fire on the pad?
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Are there any plans on replacing the shuttle-era RS-25D's during the Artemis III/IV missions?

The last two Artemis missions which use the shuttle-era RS-25D engines will fly in 2025 and 2026. Is there ever a possibility that, in the case that Aerojet Rocketdyne delivers their RS-25Es (or at ...
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Where is Artemis on this Earth-Moon three-body bifurcation plot? Where's the near-rectilinear halo orbit for example?

Below is a $\mu = 0.01215$ bifurcation plot from E. J. Doedel, E.J. et al's Elemental periodic orbits associated with the libration points in the circular restricted 3-body problem International ...
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Are L1 and L2 orbital periods always half the orbital period of the massive bodies?

Are L1 and L2 libration point orbital periods always half the orbital period of the massive bodies? The halo orbital period of JWST is a half a year. https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html The ...
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Will Artemis 2 and/or subsequent Artemis moon flights be able to break humanity's Earth distance record?

How high above the Moon are Artemis' Orion spacecraft going to orbit, in comparison to the Apollo spacecraft? Will their flights surpass or be able to surpass humanity's current record of the farthest ...
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When cis-lunar Artemis astronauts and folks on Earth communicate via audio (e.g. EVAs) will they still step on each other's words like during Apollo?

It's been fifty years since we've heard astronauts and ground folks talk over each other ("step on each other" in 1970's CB radio parlance). Sitting on the floor a few feet away from our ...
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What is an "octet" in the context of NASA's LunaNET Interoperability Standard? ("internet on the Moon")

The PDF Draft LunaNet Interoperability Specification, LN-IS Baseline V001 September 2, 2021 (found at https://esc.gsfc.nasa.gov/projects/TEMPO?tab=lunanet) has found its way to the popular press. 4.2 ...
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Could there be a relatively stable near-rectilinear halo orbit associated with the Sun-Earth L1 or L2 points? Would the Moon screw it up?

Question: Could there be a relatively stable near-rectilinear halo orbit (NLHO) associated with the Sun-Earth L1 or L2 points? Would it be similarly stable as the Earth-Moon NLHO proposed for the &...
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What are we going to do on the moon?

I understand that (after the early stage), we will assemble a gateway and have starship flights to the moon. But I am not sure if we know what will we be carrying to the moon? A 100-ton payload, of ...
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How big are the risks of Starship flipping during or after landing on the Moon?

Now that NASA has announced the selection of SpaceX to manufacture the Moon landing vehicle(s) for the Artemis program, I can't but notice how tall Starship is when compared to other concepts. Chances ...
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Why does Starship need to transfer crew to/from Orion to land humans on the moon?

In the new NASA Artemis program, Starship needs to transfer the crew to/from Orion. Why is this even needed? I thought that the Starship design allows it to travel directly from Earth to the Moon ...
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Why is the re-entry velocity of Orion almost the same as the escape velocity?

I have read that the predicted re-entry speed on the Artemis I mission for the Orion spacecraft into the Earth's atmosphere is about 24,500 mph or 10.9 km/s. Why is it almost the same as Earth's ...
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Which RS-25s are on the Artemis 1 rocket?

The SLS core to be used for the Artemis 1 flight will use four RS-25 engines. These reusable engines were used on the Space Shuttle Orbiter previously. Is there a listing of which SSMEs are planned ...
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Why doesn't NASA just again build the Altair LM or a modified Apollo LM for the Artemis project?

The Altair lunar module was part of the wonderful Constellation program cancelled in 2010; just the Orion spacecraft has been retained which is to deliver a crew into lunar orbit. The new carrier ...
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