The reconquest of the Moon begins

Right now, the robotic

probe is heading towards the Sun to take advantage of its enormous force of gravity and propel itself to its final destination: the Moon.

This is the first mission launched by South Korea to our satellite and marks the beginning of a historic landing of more than six countries in what will be a new golden age of exploration of this body, probably formed billions of years ago. when a planet the size of Mars collided with Earth and tore a piece out of it.

As in the space race of 50 years ago, the objective of many of these powers, especially the US, Europe and their Chinese and Russian rivals, is to show technological muscle, explore the enormous mineral reserves of the Moon and turn it into an intermediate station to reach the ultimate goal: Mars.

"A new era of space exploration is coming and Korea wants to be in it," Sungsoo Kim of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute and head of Polcam, one of the four science instruments aboard

, explains by email .

The main objective of the Asian country is to develop technology for exploration and communication with the Moon and other bodies in the solar system.

But the spacecraft will also do front-line scientific research.

Polcam, for example, will be the first camera to study the texture of the lunar soil using polarized light.

“The goal of this instrument will be to map the size of lunar regolith particles, which will tell us roughly how long it has been exposed to space conditions,” Kim details.

Two other instruments will analyze the intensity of the lunar magnetic field and the abundance of some strategic elements, such as uranium, helium or water.

A Korean follows the launch of the 'Danuri' probe on television.

JEON HEON-KYUN (EFE)

The fourth instrument on board, ShadowCam, has been developed by NASA and will study "the most valuable parcels of the solar system", in the words of its creators.

It is the interior of the great craters of the South Pole of the Moon, where the light of the Sun never reaches. It is thought that these cavities in eternal darkness store tons of frozen water, a key element for future astronauts to drink and make fuel. of hydrogen-based rockets.

Danuri was launched on

4, but it will still take until December to reach the Moon and start orbiting it at an altitude of just 100 kilometers.

Meanwhile, other missions from the US and Europe, India, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and China are expected to try to reach the satellite.

mission is scheduled to take off on August 29

, without a doubt the most ambitious of all those mentioned.

This is the first dress rehearsal with the

designed to take astronauts to the Moon and Mars, and the SLS rocket, the largest and most powerful ever built.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has built a key component: the

“This part is like the legs of the ship, providing the propulsion and power it needs, including solar panels and reservoirs for oxygen and water and nitrogen;

while the brain, the electronics and the control

, are installed in the capsule itself”, Philippe Deloo, a 61-year-old Belgian engineer who heads the European participation, explains to EL PAÍS.

The service module's thrusters are responsible for taking the capsule from Earth orbit to the Moon, which will fly just 100 kilometers above the surface.

At the moment there will be no humans there to see it: the only crew members of the

are three mannequins;

one with the complete astronaut suit and two other torsos —baptized Helga and Zohar— that will be used to study the effectiveness of a special vest against space radiation.

will make one and a half orbits around the Moon following an elliptical path

.

If all goes well, at its furthest point from the satellite, it will become the ship capable of transporting humans that has reached the furthest in space;

more than the Apollo that took man to the Moon more than half a century ago.

Cameras aboard the capsule are expected to send back to Earth spectacular images of the lunar surface, of the spacecraft itself, as well as the highest-quality version to date of Earth as seen from the Moon.

In 1968, the astronauts of the Apollo program took similar photos that were a shock: it was the first postcard sent by humans from outside the planet.

The SLS rocket and the 'Orion' capsule, at the top.NASA

will take 19 days to complete its path around the satellite

.

Afterwards, the European service module will fire the thrusters to bring it back to Earth in another 19 days.

If all goes as expected, the capsule will plunge into the Pacific Ocean on October 10 after a landing sequence with 11 parachutes that will slow it from 40,000 kilometers per hour to just 30. One of the keys to the mission is to test the shield temperature of the ship, which will reach about 3,000 degrees during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, as explained by Debbie Korth, one of those responsible for the mission on behalf of NASA, during a press conference.

Deloo believes that Artemis is an infinitely more ambitious program than Apollo.

"On this occasion the intention is to go to the Moon to establish permanent bases", first, orbital, and then on the surface, he explains.

“In Apollo, science was a collateral objective.

Now we are going to deploy all our capabilities to explore the South Pole of the Moon, which is of enormous geological interest and has great potential for commercial exploitation of minerals.

All this will teach us whether we can live there autonomously and use the Moon as a springboard to get to Mars”, he highlights.

The Earth as seen from the Moon, in a photograph taken by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders. Heritage Images (NASA/Heritage Images via Getty I)

If Artemis I is successful, the first manned mission to orbit the Moon without landing will be launched in 2024.

The following year, NASA expects a woman to step on the satellite for the first time in history.

The name of that chosen one has not yet been announced, but she will be selected from the current body of astronauts, a group of 42 Americans, almost half of them women, "with ages between their mid-twenties and mid-sixties," as explained in a conference. Reid Wiseman, NASA astronaut chief.

“It is true that we have some other medical tests, but if they are healthy they can count on us being able to send them to space,” he added.

moon equality

Many things have changed from previous programs for gender equality, including limits on exposure to cancer-causing space radiation, which have been completely equalized regardless of gender.

Each astronaut corps candidate will be assigned to either Artemis or the International Space Station, with different training.

For the Moon, candidates ride a replica of the

or spend hours working in their lunar exploration suits in the depths of a pool of darkness, among many other tests.

Other countries plan somewhat more modest missions to the Moon.

India stands out among them, a thriving space power that in 2009 was the protagonist of one of the most recent and important discoveries on this satellite: the discovery of water on the moon made by the

probe .

In 2019 the country failed in its attempt to land on the satellite with its

The Asian country plans to make a new attempt in the first third of 2023.

NASA astronaut training underwater.NASA

Those who did manage to land that year on the hidden side of the Moon for the first time in history were the Chinese.

The country plans several missions to explore the Moon, collect samples on asteroids, and is building its own space station.

From the US and Europe they cite this country as their main competitor.

Japan is another of the protagonists of this renaissance of lunar exploration.

The Japanese plan to launch the Slim mission this year, which will attempt the most geographically precise landing ever made on the satellite.

The oil dynasty of the United Arab Emirates also hopes to land for the first time on the Moon with

, a small exploration vehicle in whose launch the Japanese company ispace participates.

Last year, the country of the sheikhs successfully launched the

—Hope—, the first Arab spacecraft to orbit another planet: Mars.

Despite being mired in the Ukraine war, Moscow also wants to run in this new race to the Moon.

In Soviet times, it was a front-line rival to the US and for decades was the only other nation capable of successfully landing robotic probes on the satellite.

Things have changed a lot.

Sanctions and the breakdown of collaborations in the space between Moscow and the West make things much more difficult.

Even so, the country maintains its Luna-25 mission, a lander that should have taken off in July, but that will probably not be launched until 2023, according to the Tass agency.

Closer to Earth, the war in Ukraine has caused an unprecedented space crisis.

Russia's confusing announcement that it will leave the International Space Station (ISS) - a space base constantly inhabited by international astronauts 400 kilometers from Earth - in 2024 fully impacts the plans of the US and Europe, which wanted to keep it in full operation until 2030. Although everything indicates that it will extend its presence on the ISS beyond the date announced for its withdrawal, due to its inability to start up its own station in a few years.

Deloo, a veteran ESA engineer who was for years responsible for European participation, believes that the two Western partners should not have too many problems continuing to operate without the Russian module.

“The only exclusive function of this module is to deorbit the station when it reaches the end of its useful life.

For now, Western partners can continue to raise the station to maintain its orbit, so there is plenty of time to adapt and operate normally without Russia,” he says.

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