Don’t mark your calendar yet return of humanity to the Moon. NASA is having problems with the Artemis missions to such an extent that it is not known when they will occur, or if they will occur before China reaches the Moon.
Not only is the date of Artemis III, the first moon landing by a woman, scheduled for September 2026, in doubt. NASA has also had the wind in its face to meet the deadline for Artemis II, a mission much simplest in which three American astronauts and one Canadian will fly over the Moon without going down to the surface.
The many problems of Artemis II
Artemis II had already been delayed, but the rumor is that NASA will also not be able to meet the current deadlinewhich plans to launch by September 2025. This is the first manned flight around the Moon in more than five decades, and is essentially a repeat of the Artemis I mission that NASA already completed successfully, only with four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft.
The main problem is the Orion ship’s heat shield. During the Artemis I mission, the capsule re-entered safely after a successful flight, but in a subsequent check, engineers detected significant damage to the heat shield. The material cracked or detached in more than 100 areas during atmospheric braking of the capsule before landing in the Pacific Ocean.
This disturbing discovery has led NASA to reconsider the design and materials of an element fundamental to the safety of astronauts. Artemis I took place between November and December 2022, but it is still being evaluated whether it is safe to proceed with the current heat shield design or whether it needs to be modified, which would undoubtedly delay the launch schedule.
And it’s not the only problem facing Artemis II. The Orion spacecraft will launch on a NASA SLS rocket. The rocket is ready to be assembledbut the land infrastructure has been delayed due to complications in the construction of the ML-1 mobile launch tower and technical problems on the platform, according to an audit from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
In short, they have run out of room for unforeseen events, and most likely there will be some. After all, it is the first time that many of these systems have been integrated. In that case, NASA would be forced to delay Artemis II once again, which would affect subsequent missions, starting with Artemis III.
A respite for Artemis III
In the Artemis III mission, scheduled for September 2026, four astronauts will dock in lunar orbit with a SpaceX Starship. Two will stay on Orion and two others (including a woman) will go down in the Starship to the surface of the Moon. A week later, Starship will return to Moon orbit and the astronauts will return to Earth aboard Orion.
This week, the two main Artemis III contractors have given NASA a break. Starship’s booster was successfully caught in the arms of the launch tower and the craft landed at a precise point in the Indian Ocean, giving NASA hope that SpaceX can complete a test landing for Artemis III sooner rather than later. Axiom also presented the final design of the spacesuits that the Artemis astronauts will use to explore the Moon.
Beyond Artemis III, concerns revolve around the pharaonic cost overruns of NASA’s SLS rocket, manufactured by Boeing. Although it worked as planned during its first launch, it is estimated that the price of its development amounts to 17 billion dollarsand what is worse: each launch of the huge disposable rocket costs about 4.1 billion.
Another significant problem is the cost overrun in the construction of the ML-2 mobile launch tower, which will be necessary to launch a more powerful version of the rocket, the SLS Block 1B, during the Artemis IV and later missions. NASA paid $383 million to Bechtel to build ML-2 with a delivery date of March 2023. However, the costs have skyrocketed to $2.7 billion (assumed by NASA) and the delivery date has been postponed to at least September 2027.
The reason for these challenges is the Frankeinstein-architecture of the Artemis program, which takes advantage of components of the old Constellation program. The Orion ship was originally designed for six crew members, so it is larger and heavier than necessary, and has a very bulky shield. This is also why it uses a service module based on the European ATV spacecraft, developed by the European Space Agency for the Constellation program. The SLS rocket also reuses space shuttle components.
And although it is too late to change the architecture of the missions (unless the United States pays the price of returning to the Moon after China arrives), doubts continue to hover over the Artemis program. Even tycoon Michael Bloomberg has taken advantage of its environment to ask that NASA abandon its plans and use a Starship rocket for a fraction of the price. For now, the new space race is similar to the old one in one thing: it’s about money.
Images | POT
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