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Mission Artemis: five questions about a double failure

2022-09-04T15:59:24.555Z


For the second time in a week, NASA's new SLS rocket could not take off, due to a technical incident. A counter time


The celebration promised to be grandiose: tens of thousands of spectators massed around the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral (Florida) to watch the take-off, at least as many American flags floating proudly in the air, and this gigantic rocket, orange and white, erected on the mythical launch center number 39. And then, for the second time in a week: crash.

NASA again gave up on Saturday evening, at the last moment, the launch of its SLS rocket, supposed to propel an Orion capsule to the Moon.

The long-awaited Artemis mission, whose ultimate goal is to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon, will wait, the fault, this time, of a fuel leak.

Problematic, when one is in the process of filling the tanks of three million liters of ultra-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen.

Is the mission therefore compromised?

We take stock.

What happened ?

Monday, the departure of the powerful SLS launcher - responsible for driving the Orion capsule into orbit - had been postponed due to a cooling problem in one of the reactors.

These thrusters located in the lower part of the machine must be cooled so as not to suffer from shock with the ultra-cold cryogenic fuel when they are ignited.

This is why the engineers let a small part of the icy fuel escape on the engines.

But on Monday, a faulty sensor incorrectly indicated that one of the four engines, under the main stage of the rocket, had not reached the desired low temperature.

On Saturday it was a leak problem when filling the fuel tanks that nailed the rocket, and its dummy passengers, to the ground.

At this stage, difficult to know more, but NASA has already abandoned the idea of ​​taking off again this week.

Is this normal?

This is completely normal, and extremely classic.

“Myself, when I went into space in 1992 as part of the Soyuz TM-15 mission, I only took off after the third attempt,” recalls French astronaut Michel Tognini.

“Seven seconds before takeoff, the engineers had identified a sensor problem and had canceled the departure.

“In a more recent register, “11 space shuttles had to leave the launch pad to return to the hangar, and two of them did it twice in a row”, recalled Thomas Pesquet on Twitter on Saturday evening.

The two missions having the same objective of reaching the Earth satellite, it is tempting to compare Artemis to the Apollo program of the 1960s. "But at the time, in the midst of the Cold War, we were much less cautious", recalls Didier Schmitt, head of robotics and human program strategy at the European Space Agency (ESA).

As a reminder, 3 astronauts died during the Apollo 1 mission, a ground rehearsal in real conditions.

“Today, security has been multiplied by ten,” continues the ESA expert, who provides NASA with the service module responsible for pushing the Orion capsule to the Moon and bringing it back.

Does NASA lose points to SpaceX?

"Nasa has no room for error", estimated Monday in Le Parisien, Mathieu Luinaud, manager within the space activity at PwC France, in reference to the competition of the Starship launcher project from SpaceX.

But the gigantic rocket of the sulphurous billionaire Elon Musk is still far from being developed, according to Didier Schmitt.

"It has not yet proven its ability to place itself in orbit, nor to operate a cryogenic

refueling

in orbit", estimates the expert.

Because if the SLS launcher of the Artemis mission is doomed to crash once the Orion capsule is placed in orbit, Starship is supposed to be able to be reused.

This is why a launch will be much less expensive with the private operator, but this requires succeeding in a madly complex maneuver, never performed before: resupplying the rocket with cryogenic fuel in space by a another "tank vessel".

And against China?

Since the 1960s, the Chinese have replaced the Soviets as the main competitors of the Americans in the space race and the latter know it.

"We don't want China and Russia and other countries to dominate us, we have always dominated", launched Donald Trump in 2018 when announcing the resumption of manned flights to the Moon in order to prepare a trip to March.

VIDEO.

Artemis: the Americans are preparing their return to the Moon… before aiming for Mars

“The Chinese are progressing very quickly and the United States know they have to innovate,” analyzes Didier Schmitt.

However, the Chinese equivalent of the SLS launcher should only be ready around 2030, according to the expert.

By this date, if all goes well, the Artemis astronauts will have already set foot on Earth's satellite for 5 years.

"In any case, the mission to Mars will only be possible with planetary cooperation, including China, Russia and Space X", adds Michel Tognini.

How long before another takeoff?

After this new failure, the position of the Earth and the Moon does not offer any new launch possibility before September 19.

Until then, NASA engineers will have plenty of time to "dismantle and analyze the offending parts", according to Michel Tognini, who says he is confident in the chances of seeing the machine finally rise in space.

Especially since NASA will have to be less timid if it wants to complete Artemis 1 and avoid a traffic jam at the launch sites.

“A Crew Dragon capsule is also due to take off for the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of September and two or three flights are planned for the same period,” recalls Didier Schmitt.

Let's hope that this time, onlookers who come to enjoy the show will not leave disappointed.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2022-09-04

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