NASA has published a detailed plan for a test flight of a lunar lander as part of the Artemis III mission, but the exact flight date has not yet been determined. Space.com reports, citing UNN.
Details
According to the available information, the agency presented a detailed concept of operations for Artemis III during a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center on October 23, emphasizing how important the flight is to its plans for the Moon and how difficult it will be to get everything right.
"We are launching three of the most powerful rockets in the world and conducting what is probably the most complex launch campaign ever carried out," said Jeremy Parsons, head of NASA's Artemis program.
These three rockets are NASA's SLS, SpaceX's Starship, and Blue Origin's New Glenn; all of them will launch from the coast of Florida in the United States.
"If everything goes according to plan, New Glenn will launch first, delivering Blue Origin's Blue Moon lunar lander into low Earth orbit. SLS will follow, sending Artemis III astronauts Randy Bresnik, Andre Douglas, and Frank Rubio of NASA, as well as Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA), aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft," the post said.
According to Parsons, SLS will place Orion into a highly elliptical orbit, in which the distance from Earth will range from 29 to 1,806 kilometers. The capsule will then move into an orbit approximately 555 km high.
The Artemis III crew will spend two days studying Orion and its systems in low Earth orbit before meeting with Blue Moon, which will take place on the third day of the flight at an altitude of 439 km.
"Over the next two days, the crew will conduct operations while docked with Blue Moon," Parsons said. "They will open the hatch. They will enter the lander. They will assess the environmental control system and life-support systems. We will confirm that the spacecraft can maintain the proper atmospheric pressure, and we will also test emergency scenarios, dual-vehicle control, and the operation of our Mission Control Center teams."
After these operations are completed—probably around the sixth day of the flight—Starship will launch with a specially built docking adapter on its nose.
The SpaceX spacecraft—the 52-meter upper stage of the fully reusable Starship megarocket—will meet Orion in low Earth orbit on the eighth day of the flight, at an altitude of approximately 381 km. But this will be a very different encounter from the rendezvous with Blue Moon.
"The demonstration with Starship is shorter, about two hours," Parsons said. "The crew will not be inside Starship during the mission, but it will provide us with important data and allow us to truly understand the docking forces, how we will push, and how we will work together."
The Artemis III mission will last another six to nine days after Orion undocks from Starship before finally returning to Earth for an ocean splashdown using parachutes. The nominal mission duration is 14 days, Parsons said, but it could last up to 17 days.
During this time, the crew will evaluate their spacesuits—something that was not done during the 10-day Artemis II flight around the Moon in April this year—as well as carry out many other tasks, from a detailed assessment of their health to scientific experiments and technology demonstrations. The main goal is to ensure that all planned tasks are completed for the Artemis IV mission, which, if everything goes according to plan, will land astronauts near the Moon's south pole in 2028.
"Everything we do as part of Artemis III is aimed at reducing risks for our future lunar landing missions," Parsons said. "We are teaching these teams to work together and make important decisions in real time, all in the low Earth orbit environment, where, if something goes wrong, we can return home much faster."
It is currently unclear which of the two private landers—Blue Moon or Starship—will carry out the first crewed lunar landing since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
NASA still retains the option "to give both of our lunar-landing partners the greatest opportunity to prepare for landing astronauts on the Moon in 2028," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on October 23.
"We do not intend to abandon a viable path to the surface until the data and schedule compel us to do so," he added.
Regardless of which decision NASA makes regarding Artemis IV, both Blue Moon and Starship must land on the Moon relatively soon, according to Parsons. "Regardless of who goes first, both providers are planning lunar-landing missions in 2028," he said.
And these missions will be completely different. For example, during Blue Origin landings, the Orion spacecraft will rendezvous with Blue Moon in lunar orbit. However, during SpaceX landings, Starship will most likely dock with NASA's capsule in Earth orbit and take it to the Moon, Parsons said.
It remains unclear when the launch of Artemis III will take place. NASA is planning to launch it next summer, but may face difficulties keeping to that schedule: last month, in an internal memo, Isaacman informed agency employees that the launch of Artemis III was approximately 90 days behind schedule.
Reminder
SpaceX's giant Starship rocket reached orbit for the first time and deployed new Starlink satellites into it, overcoming important milestones despite an engine failure early in the flight and the decision to shorten the mission's duration by seven hours.