The uncrewed Artemis 1 moon mission launch is now set for May at the earliest, with a crucial launch pad test beginning on March 17. Key research for Artemis 1 will look into the impact of space radiation on astronauts on future Artemis missions.
The first Artemis mission will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon after launching aboard a Space Launch System megarocket. Once successfully launched, it is expected to last about 26 days, with six days spent orbiting the moon.
Even a May launch is not definite, Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development at NASA, told reporters on Thursday. The May launch window is from May 7 through May 21, with another window from June 6 through June 16.
Much later, Artemis 2 will send four astronauts on a journey around the moon sometime in 2024. It will be the first spacecraft with a crew to travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. The overall Artemis program is expected to last 15 years, partly to learn how to survive a trip to Mars.
A big part of deep space survival is dealing with space radiation that poses a threat to the human body, everything from near-term radiation sickness to the potential for cancer. Orion will pass through two intense radiation belts known as the Van Allen Belts shortly after launch. Then Orion will experience the deep space radiation from the sun during solar flares as well as particles from galactic cosmic rays from outside the galaxy.
Galactic cosmic rays are so energetic they can pass through metals, plastic, water and cellular matter. Several instruments and investigations aboard Artemis 1’s SLS and Orion spacecraft are planned, including three manikins that will collect radiation data.
The manikins include one called Commander Moonikin Campos with two active dosimeter radiation sensors. Two others named Helga and Zohar will be fitted with 5,600 passive sensors and 34 active radiation detectors.
Helga and Zohar are manikin torsos called phantoms that are made from materials that mimic human bones, soft tissues and organs of an adult female. Zohar will wear a radiation protection vest, called AstroRad, while Helga will not, to evaluate the effectiveness of the protective vest.
The phantoms are part of the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment that is an international effort including the German Aerospace Center, the Israel Space Agency and NASA.
Other instruments and investigations aboard Orion during Artemis 1:
--Radiation Area Monitor passive detectors to record the total radiation dose during the mission.
--A radiation detector named Hybrid Electronic Radiation Assessor to measure charged particles that pass through its sensors. It will be connected to power to send its readings to Earth during the flight. For later missions with astronauts aboard, HERA will sound a warning in a solar energetic particle event.
--ESA active dosimeters will include multiple sensors to cover a broad range of energies from ionizing radiation in space.
--Four biology investigations
--BioSentinel, using yeast to measure the impact of radiation on living organisms at different stages of a flight.
--CuSP, a space weather station to study solar particles in solar wind.
--Equuleus, which will image Earth’s plasmasphere.
--Omotenashi, to demonstrate the technology for a small spacecraft to explore the lunar surface that will also deploy a radiation dosimeter to measure space radiation near the moon.
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