The Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft passed its test flight, but has yet to test life support
The European-built service module that powers the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis 1 mission is making its lunar debut round trip, but a key system to keep future human crews alive in flight is not being tested .
The Orion capsuleWhich one the return began of its breakthrough journey on Thursday (Dec. 1), is currently not full of breathable air, European aerospace giant Airbus told Space.com. According to Airbus, which built Orion service modulethe capsule’s life support system will only be tested in ground laboratories before the first flight with astronauts in 2024.
The European-built Service Module, responsible for propulsion and navigation, is the part of the spacecraft that maintains habitable conditions inside Orion’s crew compartment. The service module carries the water that the astronauts will need during the flight and generates breathable air by mixing oxygen and nitrogen that are stored in separate tanks.
Related: NASA’s Artemis 1 Moon Mission: Live Updates
during the Artemis 1 missionhowever, the engineers are only testing the nitrogen delivery system, but thankfully not either shaun the sheepthe stuffed animal sent for the mission by the European Space Agency (ESA), nor the three mannequins occupying Orion’s cabinkeep this fact in mind.
“The oxygen and nitrogen delivery systems are very similar,” Airbus spokesman Ralph Heinrich told Space.com in an email. “We carry nitrogen aboard Artemis 1 and will test the in-flight nitrogen delivery system that is currently underway. Since the oxygen and nitrogen systems carry the same components, the test of the nitrogen delivery system nitrogen will similarly cover oxygen delivery. Additionally, the oxygen system is being tested extensively on the ground.”
For Airbus, the Artemis 1 mission represents a major victory. ESA awarded the company a contract to develop the service module, a key component of the Orion spacecraft, based on its previous experience building the Orion spacecraft. Automatic transfer vehiclea cargo spaceship that used to supply the International Space Station between 2008 and 2014. During its lunar missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s, NASA built all the necessary technology at home in the United States and did not include any international partners.
The Artemis 1 Service Module is the culmination of ten years of work, and the Airbus team is delighted to see the craft performing well. So far, the service module has completed all of its key tasks perfectly, including three the engine burns outwhich first helped Orion enter orbit around the Moon, and then leave lunar orbit to return to Earth.
In a post-launch press conference, NASA admitted that it detected it 13 anomalies during the initial phase of Orion’s flight, including erratic readings from the star trackers the space capsule uses to navigate.
“Engineers will study the data coming back from Orion so that every system, every component on board the spacecraft can be tested in one way or another before the next mission,” Sian Cleaver, project manager for the European Service Module . at Airbus told Space.com in an interview. “So far, so good. Of course, there will be things that can be improved or changed. There were a few things that didn’t work out exactly as planned, but none of them were major issues.”
Airbus engineers are receiving a data stream from the spacecraft that includes “pressure, temperature, valve position, and currents and voltages data” to monitor its health, Airbus wrote in an email.
“We look at all data throughout the entire mission, and especially during important events such as main engine ignition,” Airbus wrote. “[We] Make sure the system is operating within its expected and rated range. The data is also continuously stored, to enable post-flight analysis and preparation for future Artemis missions.”
Airbus has already delivered the next service module to NASA for testing and mating with the crew compartment Mission Artemis 2which will bring humans into orbit around the moon for the first time since the last Apollo flight in 1972. This mission is expected to launch no earlier than 2024, if all goes according to plan. The company has also almost completed the assembly of the third service module, which will feed the Mission Artemis 3 which is expected to involve a lunar landing no earlier than 2025.
The bones of the fourth service module have also been put together and work is expected to begin on the fifth model at the end of this month. These service modules will cover Artemis missions 4 and 5, which are expected to reach the Moon later this decade. At that time, the Lunar gateway The space station will be mounted in orbit around the Moon, ushering in a new era of regular human visits to Earth’s companion.
“It really feels like a bit of a production line now in our facility,” Cleaver said. “It’s very exciting. The program is very, very moving now. We have a plan for the next 10 years, and there are also clear messages from NASA and ESA that the moon is just the first step and that the technology is ‘will use to eventually go to Mars.’
Airbus has a contract to build service module number six and is currently negotiating another batch of three. Service modules are single-use only and will be detached from the crew capsule prior to entry earth’s atmosphere during his return.
The Artemis 1 mission lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 16. The mission was a debut not only for Orion, but also for the Space Launch System mega rocket that launched it into space. During the mission, Orion passed just 80 miles (130 kilometers) above the surface of the Moon and also broke a record distance from Earth never reached by a human-qualified spacecraft. By coming within 270,000 miles (435,000 km) of the planet, Orion surpassed the previous record set by the Apollo 13 mission. That mission, however, only got that far as part of a rescue operation designed to bring it to home after an onboard explosion crippled the spacecraft.
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