They are currently traveling a lot: Nasa astronaut Christina Koch, her colleagues Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, as well as the Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen were even at the Airbus factory in Bremen in mid-September to find out about the construction of the European Service Module (ESM). . This module will one day be the new space capsule Orion supply with fuel, oxygen, water and energy. The quartet is supposed to use this capsule for approximately ten days Artemis-2-Mission to fly around the moon, the first astronautical lunar landing since Apollo 17 to prepare in 1972.
The quartet recently paid a 15-minute visit to US President Joe Biden in the White House – they only left the Oval Office after 90 minutes, as Nasa boss Bill Nelson said during a press conference on Tuesday. They were celebrated on Monday when they attended a football game in Houston – Nelson, who spent a few days with him during his time as a congressman in 1986 Space Shuttle was in space, spoke of a “golden era” of space exploration that had begun.
But he will still have to wait for the Apollo moment, i.e. the return to the moon before astronauts. Nelson announced Tuesday that the Artemis-2-The mission of the four astronauts will be postponed from the end of this year to September 2025. And the moon landing with it Artemis 3 itself, whose crew has not yet been determined, from the end of 2025 to September 2026. “Safety is our top priority,” said Nelson. To overcome the technical challenges, “we will Artemis 2 and 3 give more time”. Another moon landing with Artemis 4 is still scheduled for September 2028.
There are problems with the life support system and heat protection
The background to the delay are various technical problems that NASA is still having with the space capsule, among other things Orion from Lockheed Martin and the actual lunar landing system HLS (Human Landing System). At the Orioncapsule, the heat protection shield needs to be improved. The first test flight of Artemis 1 without a crew was successful at the end of 2022, but some carbon substances from the heat shield material were released during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. “We saw some unexpected phenomena,” said NASA manager Amit Kshatriya, who is in charge of the lunar program.
There are further problems in the life support system with the valve electronics, which also affect ventilation, CO₂ extraction devices and temperature control. That’s why hardware needs to be replaced. However, these problems have nothing to do with the European supply module ESM, as Esa said. The space agency delivers the ESM to NASA and in return receives astronaut positions Artemis-Missions, including probably at least one moon landing.
“We have to be realistic,” said NASA deputy chief Jim Free Artemis-Schedule concerns. The development of the lunar module and the spacesuits still need time. Each project in itself is “an incredibly big challenge”. The US Audit Office GAO (Government Accountability Office) had already flagged possible delays at the end of November last year Artemisprogram pointed out. In one Report to Congress the GAO assumes that for 2025 Artemis 3 planned moon landing “will probably take place in early 2027”, if the development of the HLS lunar landing system by Space-X takes as long as large NASA projects on average. The GAO assumes 92 months. So far, 79 have been budgeted, but the program is already behind schedule. There are delays of between six and 13 months for eight of 13 important milestones.
NASA has Space-X has so far been commissioned with two astronaut moon landings for more than four billion dollars, and the company has another contract BlueOrigin received from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Apart from that Starship of Space-X, which is supposed to land the astronauts on the moon, exploded during the two test flights so far, Space-X still has to set up a refueling system with these giant spaceships. The concept for this is a kind of Gas station in Earth orbit which has to be filled by several tankers. Before the flight to the moon Starship-Refuel the lunar module in Earth orbit before it flies on to collect the astronauts from the parallel launch near the moon OrionNASA capsule. Before the first landing with passengers, Space-X still has to complete a test landing without a crew. On top of all this, there are problems with the development of the spacesuit, as the GAO notes. So 2025 would be for Artemis 3 was quite ambitious, the GAO simply calls the schedule “unrealistic.”
Nasa boss Nelson dismissed fears that China could forestall NASA – the country wants to send astronauts to the moon by 2030 – on Tuesday. “I’m not worried that China will land before us.”