The Orion spacecraft made its first close flyby of
the Moon on Monday 21 November, coming as close as 81 statute miles (130
kilometers) from the lunar surface.
As the Artemis 1 mission's uncrewed spacecraft flew
past the far side of the Moon, Orion's orbital maneuvering system engine fired
for 2 minutes and 30 seconds to successfully put the capsule into the desired
orbit for the mission, called a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon.
"This burn is setting Orion up to orbit the
Moon, and is largest propulsive event so far, as Artemis is hunting the
Moon," said Mike Sarafin, Artemis Mission Manager at a briefing on Monday.
The engine burn, called an outbound powered flyby
burn, is the first of two maneuvers required to enter the so-called distant
retrograde orbit around the Moon.
The next burn comes on Friday 25 November, using the
engines on the European Service Module. Orion will remain in this orbit for
about a week to test spacecraft systems.
The distant retrograde will take Orion 40,000 miles
past the Moon. Orion's greatest distance from the Earth will be Monday 28 November
at 3:05 p.m. CST (0905 UTC) at more than 268,500 miles.
Orion's greatest distance from the Moon will be on
Friday 25 November at 3:53 p.m. CST (2153 UTC) at more than 57,250 miles. This
is the farthest any human-rated spacecraft has flown beyond the Moon.
Sarafin said the mission teams has had a chance to
review the performance of the SLS rocket, the spacecraft and the ground systems
for the Artemis I mission.
The results, he said, were "eye watering,"
meaning everything has met or exceeded expectations.
"We haven't seen a single thing on the rocket
or spacecraft that would cause us to question any portion of the mission,"
Sarafin said.
"This is largely a greenlight flight. The
vehicle systems are very clean, but we are working a few 'funnies' – nothing
that puts any constraints on the mission, just that some things were operating
differently than expected. Overall, the mission continues to proceed as
planned."
During the flyby, cameras on board the spacecraft
sent back stunning imagery of the Moon, with Earth in the distant background.
"An Earthrise of our pale blue dot and its 8
billion human inhabitants now coming into view," Mission Control
commentator Sandra Jones said on NASA TV as footage was received from Orion.
"We didn't expect to get live-stream video like
we did," said Judd Frieling, the Ascent and Entry Flight Director for
Artemis 1, "but as part of testing the system, we were seeing how far we
can press the bandwidth limitations. From this point forward, when we have the
bandwidth available, we will broadcast the livestream from the mission."
The Artemis 1 flight launched on November 16 and is
the first mission in 50 years where a human-capable spacecraft is at the Moon.
NASA hopes to use Orion, SLS, and other yet-to-be-built hardware, such as a
Moon lander built by SpaceX – to send astronauts back to the lunar surface.
That first lunar landing could launch as soon as
2025. Artemis 1 is testing out much of the technology that will be needed for
future flights.
Frieling also said Orion will be flying past the
Moon again on December 5, and the lighting should be good enough for the
cameras on Orion to capture imagery of the Apollo landing sites.
While an exciting proposition, don't expect to see
good views of the hardware left behind. Orion won't be as close as the Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter – which has already taken high-resolution views of the
Apollo sites – nor are Orion's cameras as good as LRO's.
Orion will return to Earth about 25 days after
launch, and splashdown of Orion is currently slated for December 11.
Using the cameras on the European Service Module's
solar arrays, engineers have been able to assess the exterior of Orion and have
deemed it to be in great shape. Therefore, Orion has already been cleared for
re-entry.
Sarafin said that on December 5, teams will meet to
decide when and where to deploy the recovery forces, a joint effort between the
US Navy and NASA.
The recovery zone will be in the Pacific Ocean, but
the exact landing site will be decided based on a whole host of factors, most
importantly the weather.
Reference: Universe Today
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