The Moon moves away a little for NASA which postpones the Artemis II and III missions

To say that when Artemis I took off in November 2022, we expected to see the return of a crew around the Moon in the fall or winter of 2024… It is an understatement to say that these Artemis missions will have suffered repeated delays . Yesterday, the suspended boss of NASABill Nelson, made two important announcements on this subject.

• Postponement of the Artemis II mission with the already known crew of four astronauts (Kristina Koch, Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman), who must carry out a flyby of the Moon in the fall of 2026 in conditions similar to Apollo 8.
• Postponement of the Artemis III mission to mid-2027 (at least), in particular to allow the Starship HLS to be ready so that the crew finally lands on the lunar regolith.

The Orion capsule and its crack problems

As early as January 2023, we knew that the Orion spacecraft, the space vehicle responsible for welcoming the crew, partly manufactured by the European Space Agency (ESA), had suffered unforeseen damage following the unmanned Artemis I mission. Having resisted enough to regain our ground, its thermal shield had cracked instead of melting, and moreover too unevenly.

We now know what happened: during its re-entry at very high speed, to reduce the latter, the capsule made (voluntary) bounces on the dense layer of our atmosphere, as incredible as that seems. ! It is these rebounds which unevenly damaged the thermal shield and led to an unanticipated sublimation reaction of the material, theAVCOAT. The ultra-heated atmosphere by the friction actually rose to a temperature of 2800°C, and during the rebounds, a pocket of gas was formed inside the shield, which led to this type of damage:

Even if the temperature inside the capsule remained nominal, therefore without danger for possible astronauts, NASA does not want to take any risks. The memory of the horrible death at all first Apollo 1 crew remains very present in everyone's mind. Indeed, during an ordinary ground test, pure oxygen ignited inside the Apollo capsule and the three astronauts burned to death. Fortunately, we are far from this type of problem.

NASA officials thus announced that the atmospheric re-entry trajectory, with its famous bounces, would be revised, which will have the effect of bringing the recovery of Orion closer to San Diego in the Pacific.

And Artemis III in all this?

Artemis III is THE major mission leading to the return of humans to the lunar surface decades after the Apollo program. This mission is therefore much more complex, because it requires the assistance of the Starship HLS to land and take off from the Moon. However, the latter is not yet ready, far from it. Artemis III also requires resupply in Earth orbit by numerous Starships, as can be seen in this infographic.

These supplies, which we have often mentioned, are one of the crucial points of the mission and the development of the Starship HLS, which is not the version currently tested by SpaceX, will take time. NASA therefore no longer plans this mission before mid-2027, but another postponement is still possible.

The political and strategic objective is to not let China and its lunar space program arrive first at the South Pole, suspected of harboring water ice. The United States, led by Donald Trump, will want to remain leaders in this race, knowing that China announces that it is targeting 2030 and is carrying out its aerospace projects at high speed.

We can, however, imagine that these new postponements will be arguments used by Elon Musk to bring SpaceX even more into Artemis. And there is no doubt that his friend Jared Isaacman, recently appointed NASA administratorwill support him.

Sources:
Space News: NASA delays Artemis 2 moon mission to 2026, Artemis 3 astronaut landing to mid-2027
Cité de l'espace: the Orion capsule more damaged than expected by the Artemis I mission