On Saturday, after 378 days of solitude, crewmembers Anca Selariu, Nathan Jones, Kelly Haston, and Ross Brockwell emerged from Mars Dune Alpha: a 1,700-square-foot simulated Mars habitat part of NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) program. The yearlong simulation was the first of three planned exercises with human volunteers.

“Hello. It’s actually just so wonderful to be able to say hello to you all,” said Haston, CHAPEA commander, as cameras captured the moment she stepped outside the 3D-printed habitat.

The goal of CHAPEA is to provide NASA data on the effects of long-duration habitation of Mars by putting the crew through the throes of life on the Red Planet: isolation, equipment failures, limited resources, and plenty of work. Selariu, Jones, Haston, and Brockwell entered the simulator on June 25, 2023.

The habitat includes 3D-printed spaces for cooking, medical, recreation, fitness, work, and growing crops, as well as private quarters and bathrooms for each crewmember. Volunteers tested out each of these amenities, grew and ate crops like tomatoes and peppers, and performed simulated “Marswalks,” collecting data on their physical and mental health.

“We cannot live, dream, create, or explore on any significant time frame if we don’t live these principles, but if we do, we can achieve and sustain amazing and inspiring things like exploring other worlds,” Brockwell said Saturday during a press conference.

In conjunction with Artemis missions to the moon, CHAPEA is helping prepare NASA for flights to Mars and beyond without crews having to leave Earth. According to the space agency, 3D printing could become a unique tool in its arsenal when the time comes.

“Future space exploration settlements have the potential to be 3D printed with additive construction technology to eliminate the need to launch large quantities of building materials on multiple flights, which is cost prohibitive,” the agency says on the Mars Dune Alpha webpage.

In February, NASA put out the call for the next group of CHAPEA volunteers, who are scheduled to enter the habitat in spring 2025.

“Mars is our goal,” said Stephen Koerner, deputy director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, during the media briefing Saturday. “As global interests and capabilities in space exploration continue to expand, America is poised to lead.”

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SpaceX this week quietly added a “Human Spaceflight” tab to its website, listing four destinations to which customers can book flights: Earth orbit, the ISS, lunar orbit, and Mars. It is unclear when the new offerings were added.

Pricing information for the missions does not appear to be available. But the webpage directs customers to an email address, humanspaceflight@spacex.com, where they can inquire to book a flight. Missions will begin later this year, the page says, starting with flights to Earth orbit.

FLYING reached out to that email and SpaceX’s press email but did not receive an immediate response.

SpaceX describes its Earth orbit missions as offering a view of the planet from 300 kilometers up. The missions, seating two to four passengers, will last three to six days, offering 360-degree views.

According to the webpage, seats and “on-orbit research opportunities” will be available in late 2024. Regarding the latter offering, SpaceX says it is seeking “exceptional science and research ideas” to study ways to make life in space and on other planets a possibility.

The in-orbit research missions would be facilitated by the company’s Dragon capsule, which since 2012 has ferried more than 1,000 research experiments to low-Earth orbit and the ISS. Customers can submit a research proposal, which SpaceX will either accept or decline. If accepted, the applicant will put together a detailed plan, working with the company to finalize a mission profile, train crews, certify hardware, and collect data.

Two human spaceflight research opportunities are listed on SpaceX’s website: fitness-focused and exploration-focused research. The latter centers largely on the development of medical capabilities for long-duration missions—perhaps to Mars, for example. Mental and physical health and virtual or augmented reality are listed as areas of research interest.

“All Dragon and Starship missions have the ability to conduct scientific research to improve life back on Earth as well as raise awareness to a global audience,” the page reads.

Ten-day commercial missions to the ISS, according to SpaceX, will be available as early as 2025. These would transport up to four people or 192 kilograms of cargo to the orbital laboratory, where passengers could conduct research or simply pay a visit.

Missions to lunar orbit and Mars do not have listed timelines. But the webpage advertises seven-day trips around the moon with up to 12 passengers, with private quarters included. A mission profile for flights to Mars simply lists the Red Planet’s day length, force of gravity, and average distance from Earth.

For all missions, passengers will don a 3D-printed helmet “with customized padding [that] houses microphones for communication and valves that regulate the suit’s pressure systems,” per SpaceX’s description.

The vehicles listed under the Human Spaceflight tab are the Dragon capsule, which is already in use by NASA, and Starship, the reusable upper stage of the company’s massive spacecraft.

Starship and SpaceX’s Super Heavy launcher combined form the largest and most powerful rocket ever constructed, standing close to 400 feet tall when stacked. However, the gargantuan vehicle has been grounded after each of its three uncrewed orbital test flights.

Interestingly, the addition of human spaceflight offerings to SpaceX’s website suggests that the company expects to build on Starship’s most recent flight, and quickly—fast enough to offer missions to lunar orbit in the not-so-distant future. The jumbo rocket is also a key component of NASA’s Artemis II and Artemis III missions to the moon’s orbit and surface, respectively.

SpaceX is not the only company to offer cosmic tourism for paying customers, nor will it be the first to actually deliver on that offering.

Blue Origin in 2021 was the first to fly humans beyond the atmosphere, ferrying CEO Jeff Bezos and Star Trek icon William Shatner to the edge of space. Virgin Galactic followed in June 2023 with its inaugural commercial launch and is now offering monthly suborbital flights for a few hundred thousand dollars per ticket.

Musk and SpaceX’s ambitions, however, are grander than those of their rivals, culminating in the establishment of human colonies on the moon and other planets. But first the company will need to prove it can safely fly humans around the Earth.

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The agency is asking “the NASA community,” including its Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other agency centers, to collaborate on “out-of-the-box” designs, using existing technology, that could return the samples.

NASA on Monday released its response to a September 2023 Independent Review Board (IRB) report analyzing Mars Sample Return and its costs. It estimated the mission’s budget at $8 billion to $11 billion, with the high end of that range being more than double previous estimates of $4.4 billion.

Under those constraints, Nelson said, the mission would not return samples until 2040, which he said is “unacceptable.”

“Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions NASA has ever undertaken,” said Nelson. “The bottom line is, an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away. Safely landing and collecting the samples, launching a rocket with the samples off another planet—which has never been done before—and safely transporting the samples more than 33 million miles back to Earth is no small task. We need to look outside the box to find a way ahead that is both affordable and returns samples in a reasonable timeframe.”

Nelson also pointed to Congress’ recent budget cuts as a contributing factor in the agency’s current challenges.

The agency’s response to the IRB report includes an “updated mission design with reduced complexity; improved resiliency; risk posture; [and] stronger accountability and coordination.”

It said it will solicit proposals from the industry that could return samples in the 2030s, with responses expected in the fall. These alternative mission designs, NASA said, would reduce cost, risk, and mission complexity. It is unclear exactly what kind of solution the agency is seeking. But it emphasized leveraging existing technologies that do not require large amounts of time and money to develop.

Without more funding, according to NASA, Mars Sample Return could dip into money allocated for projects at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and other centers. Projects such as Dragonfly, a mission to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, could be discontinued, warned Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

Plans for a Mars sample return mission have been proposed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 2001. The samples are expected to help researchers understand the formation and evolution of the solar system and habitable worlds, including our own. They could be used to learn whether there was ancient life on Mars and aid in the search for life elsewhere in the universe.

NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars in 2021 and has been collecting samples since. Originally, the plan was to return them to Earth in 2033 using a rocket, orbiter, and lander. However, the IRB report found that the orbiter and lander likely would not leave the Earth until that year.

A Sample Retrieval Lander would deploy a small rocket to collect samples from Perseverance, using an ESA-provided robotic arm. Sample recovery helicopters—based on the successful Ingenuity autonomous Mars helicopter and also capable of collecting samples—would serve as backup.

A Mars Ascent Vehicle, which would be the first rocket to launch off the Mars surface, would carry samples to the planet’s orbit, where they would be captured by an Earth Return Orbite—also designed by ESA—and brought back to Earth.

The initiative would be the first international, interplanetary mission to return samples from another planet and, according to NASA, would return “the most carefully selected and well-documented set of samples ever delivered from another planet.”

Earlier this year, the space agency marked the 20-year anniversary of its twin Spirit and Opportunity rovers’ arrival on the Martian surface, where they provided the first compelling evidence that the red planet once held water.

NASA’s Curiosity rover is currently surveying a region of the planet thought to have been carved by a river billions of years ago. Its explorations could lead to further discoveries about life on Mars.

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The post NASA Is Asking for Help to Return Samples That Could Uncover Life on Mars appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The mission, set to begin in 2025, is the second of three ground-based CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) efforts that aim to inform NASA’s plans for human exploration of Mars.

• READ MORE: NASA’s Twin Spirit and Opportunity Probes Leave Lasting Legacy 20 Years Later

• READ MORE: NASA Delays First Crewed U.S. Moon Landing in Half a Century to 2026

Based on the job description, applicants must be up for an adventure.

“Each CHAPEA mission involves a four-person volunteer crew living and working inside a 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habitat based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston,” NASA said. “The habitat, called the Mars Dune Alpha, simulates the challenges of a mission on Mars, including resource limitations, equipment failures, communication delays, and other environmental stressors. Crew tasks include simulated spacewalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, exercise, and crop growth.”

WATCH: NASA Offers a Sneak Peek of its Simulated Mars Habitat

According to NASA, applicants must be healthy, U.S. citizens or permanent residents, proficient in English, nonsmokers, and between the ages of 35-50.

The deadline to apply, which may be done here, is April 2.

The post Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Martian? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

January marks the 20th anniversary of twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity’s arrival on the Martian surface, where the vehicles searched for the first evidence of water on the red planet. Designed to last 90 days, Spirit was active until 2010, while Opportunity’s final communication came 15 years after landing.

Opportunity—nicknamed “the little rover that could”—was built to travel 1,100 yards but ultimately zigzagged nearly 30 miles across the Martian surface, covering a marathon-length distance by 2015. The rover finally succumbed to a planetwide dust storm in 2018.

“This was a paradigm shift no one was expecting,” said John Callas, former project manager of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which managed the Mars Exploration Rover mission, in a media release commemorating the anniversary. “The distance and time scale we covered were a leap in scope that is truly historic.”

Before Spirit and Opportunity, scientists had no definitive proof that the network of channels visible from Mars’ orbit were formed by liquid water. The twin rovers delivered it—and set the stage for later and future explorations.

The Search for Life

The golf cart-sized twin rovers touched down three weeks apart on opposite sides of Mars: Spirit landed on January 3, while Opportunity followed on January 24. They arrived draped in airbags, bouncing along the surface dozens of times before coming to a stop. 

Immediately, the rovers got to work snapping panoramic images—these were beamed back to scientists, who used them to select targets to investigate. Five-foot-high, mast-mounted cameras gave the vehicles a 360-degree, two-eyed, humanlike view of the terrain.

The rovers’ robotic arms moved like a human’s with elbows and wrists. They could position instruments directly up against rock and soil scientists chose to investigate. A mechanical “hand,” meanwhile, held a microscopic camera that functioned like a geologist’s magnifying glass. A Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) acted as a hammer, exposing the insides of rocks.

Spirit and Opportunity ultimately returned more than 217,000 raw images, illuminating the Martian surface like never before. Shortly after landing, Opportunity discovered Martian “blueberries”—spherical pebbles of mineral hematite that formed in acidic water. Spirit years into its mission unearthed evidence of ancient hot springs, which may have housed microbial life billions of years ago.

Over the course of their mission, the twin rovers found that Mars not only supported fresh water but also hot springs and even acidic and salty pools at different points in its history. The findings were—and still are—considered groundbreaking.

“Our twin rovers were the first to prove a wet, early Mars once existed,” said Matt Golombek, former project scientist of the JPL. “They paved the way for learning even more about the red planet’s past with larger rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance.”

Lasting Legacy

Opportunity’s final transmission came in 2018. But the twin rovers’ impact will last forever.

“It is because of trailblazing missions such as Opportunity that there will come a day when our brave astronauts walk on the surface of Mars,” said former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “And when that day arrives, some portion of that first footprint will be owned by the men and women of Opportunity and a little rover that defied the odds and did so much in the name of exploration.”

NASA engineers’ work on Spirit and Opportunity unlocked practices for exploring Mars that continue even today, such as the use of specialized software or 3D goggles. Their experience countering roadblocks along the mission—of which there were many—has helped them plan safer, longer drives. It also allowed teams to quickly put together the more complex daily plans required to operate two later NASA rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance.

NASA approved the development of the SUV-sized Curiosity “thanks in part to the science collected by Spirit and Opportunity.” Its 2012 mission determined that the chemical ingredients needed to support life were present on Mars billions of years ago, when the red planet is thought to have been painted blue by water.

Perseverance landed on Mars in 2021 on a mission to collect rock cores to return to Earth. The project to check for signs of ancient life is part of a joint NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) campaign called Mars Sample Return.

Perseverance carried with it NASA’s Ingenuity, an autonomous, remotely commanded Mars helicopter. Not long after, it made the first powered flight on another planet. Ingenuity has now flown more than 25 times, including a record-breaking flight spanning 2,000 feet at 12 mph. The diminutive rotorcraft earned the reader’s choice honor in FLYING’s 2022 Innovation and Editor’s Choice Awards.

Read More: 2022 FLYING Innovation and Editor’s Choice Awards

The career of Abigail Fraeman—who was a high school student when she was invited to JPL on the night of Opportunity’s landing—perhaps best encapsulates the lasting impact of the twin rovers.

Fraeman went on to become a Mars geologist, returning to JPL years later to lead the Opportunity science team. Now, the accomplished researcher serves as deputy project scientist for Curiosity. She is one of many who were deeply affected by Spirit and Opportunity’s accomplishments.

“The people who kept our twin rovers running for all those years are an extraordinary group, and it’s remarkable how many have made exploring Mars their career,” Fraeman said. “I feel so lucky I get to work with them every day while we continue to venture into places no human has ever seen in our attempt to answer some of the biggest questions.”

Twenty years after Spirit and Opportunity touched down on the Martian surface, Perseverance is one month away from entering its fourth year on the red planet. But NASA isn’t stopping there. The next step? The return of humans to the moon via the Artemis program, followed by the first steps on Mars charted by the agency’s Moon to Mars architecture.

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During a press conference Tuesday afternoon, NASA officials announced that the Artemis II and Artemis III moon missions—planned for this year and next, respectively—will be pushed to September 2025 and September 2026. Artemis II is expected to put NASA astronauts in lunar orbit, while Artemis III aims to land them on the moon, where they would become the first humans to visit the lunar south pole.

The Artemis program is effectively the descendant of the Apollo missions, which concluded decades earlier. But unlike Apollo, it represents a shift toward leveraging private sector companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, for key vehicle components.

Despite speculation that the Artemis lunar landing could be pushed to Artemis IV—which NASA affirmed is still on track for 2028—the space agency said no changes will be made to the flight plan of either mission, and no flights will be added. However, for a variety of reasons, many related to safety, both Artemis II and III will fly later than initially planned.

As Jim Free, associate administrator of NASA, put it: “We’ll launch when we’re ready.”

Safety First

Attending Tuesday’s press conference were Free, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Deputy Associate Administrator of the Moon to Mars program Amit Kshatriya, and Associate Administrator of the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate Catherine Koerner. The four officials—plus representatives from NASA industry partners such as SpaceX and Lockheed Martin—fielded questions from media about why the missions were delayed.

According to NASA, several issues discovered during Artemis I, which carried the agency’s reusable Orion capsule around the moon in 2022, are causing delays to Artemis II. These center around the spacecraft’s heat shield, abort capabilities, and electrical systems and could pose threats its occupants.

Kshatriya said heat shield erosion during Artemis I caused pieces of the thermal cover to fly off—an outcome not predicted by NASA. The agency said it discovered the issue while rewatching the watershed flight and has spent “the bulk of 2023” working to understand its root cause.

Orion is also dealing with a design flaw in the motor valve circuitry for its life support system, which was tested and approved for Artemis II but not the subsequent mission. The spacecraft’s digital motor controllers are hampering its carbon dioxide scrubber, which absorbs the gas to provide breathable air for astronauts. Artemis I did not test any life support systems, but they will be added to Artemis II along with a new abort system.

Further, NASA found a deficiency in Orion’s batteries. The issue won’t hinder the spacecraft’s ability to separate from the booster in an emergency, but the agency said it could cause unexpected effects.

“We’re still very early in that investigation,” said Kshatriya.

The effort to replace and retest the faulty components will be tremendous, NASA said, but essential for Orion to fly on Artemis II and beyond. Nelson said the revised mission timeline will “give Artemis teams more time to work through the challenges.”

Even more work will need to be done for Artemis III, which NASA said will introduce several new components and systems: a human landing system (HLS), docking module, propellant transfer system, and spacesuits to name a few. Kshatriya said the timeline for that mission remains “very aggressive.”

Free said NASA expects the development of SpaceX’s Starship HLS and Axiom’s next-generation spacesuits will take additional time. The agency has also yet to solve the issue of propellant transfer, or in-flight refilling, which involves a spacecraft drawing fuel from another spacecraft or stationary outpost.

A SpaceX representative attending the media briefing estimated the company will need to complete ten refueling missions before Starship HLS lands on the moon, which the company hopes will happen in 2025. 

The representative added that SpaceX’s Starship—the largest and most powerful rocket ever built—is working toward a NASA tipping point demo to explore propellant transfer between tanks. The company does not consider this a propellant test mission, but the maneuver will be studied during Starship’s third orbital test flight, expected in February.

When asked, the representative did not provide a minimum number of Starship orbital test flights needed before a lunar landing. But the propellant transfer flight, whenever that happens, will be the one that matters most.

“We’ve been building the machine to build the machine,” the representative said.

Free added that development of NASA’s Gateway space station—which is expected to fly on a future Artemis mission—and the Block 1B variant of its Space Launch System (SLS) also necessitated delays. 

But NASA officials said the larger gaps between the missions will allow the agency to incorporate more lessons from previous flights into each increasingly complex Artemis project. SpaceX and Blue Origin, for example, will be required to develop cargo variants of their human lunar landers as part of their obligations for Artemis IV, NASA said Tuesday.

A Clearer Outlook?

When one questioner mentioned the space industry’s doubts about the new timeline—arising from previous Artemis delays—Free explained what makes NASA so confident.

He said the agency now has a better understanding of Orion and other Artemis vehicles. The bigger reassurance, however, is the industry’s support: Free said 11 industry and contractor partners attended Tuesday’s press conference, and all of them contributed to the revised mission schedule.

Kshatriya pointed to the SLS core stage delivery to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility as a sign of readiness, adding that the spacecraft’s booster segments are ready to stack and the upper stage is “ready to go.” Further, NASA’s European Space Agency (ESA) partners will ship a service model to the agency in a few months, he said.

Nelson, meanwhile, dispelled fears that China could beat the U.S. to a moon landing. He expressed confidence that the rival superpower would not reach the lunar surface before Artemis III. But with the delay, the two competitors’ schedules are undoubtedly more aligned.

Nelson also pointed to the agency’s recent progress, most notably a partnership with the United Arab Emirates to build the airlock for Gateway and the launch of Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions.

The NASA administrator emphasized that Artemis will only be the beginning of the new era of American spaceflight. The agency is also developing its Moon to Mars program, which Nelson said will rely on international partners to land an American on Mars. Reaching the moon, he said, will be the first step toward missions to the red planet in the future.

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The Artemis missions are designed to establish a sustainable human presence on and around the moon by the end of the 2020s. NASA plans to use the lessons learned through the program to help get astronauts to Mars by the late 2030s or early 2040s.

The Artemis program has been delayed after NASA waived off launch attempts on August 29 and September 3 because of mechanical issues, and again in late September, owing to weather concerns stemming from Hurricane Ian.

NASA’s upcoming launch attempt will have a 69-minute window beginning at 12:07 a.m. EST Monday, November 14. Backup dates are set for November 16 and 19.

Assuming the launch is successful on November 14, the mission duration is planned for 25 1/2 days with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, December 9. 

The lead-up to the November 14  attempt includes a slow rollout of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center. The 4-mile move begins November  4 at 12:01 a.m.

Jim Free, associate administrator Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, expressed confidence in the technical preparations for the spacecraft, however, noted that a developing low-pressure weather system has captured the launch team’s attention. The system is forecasted to bring sustained winds of 25 knots with gusts between 35 to 40  knots to the Cape Canaveral area early next week.  

“We’re confident in the decision process that went into that,” Free said.  “We talked about a lot of the same things, many things that we talked about with the hurricane (Ian).” When asked about the team’s overall morale after the last two scrubbed launches, Free responded by saying, “If we weren’t confident, we wouldn’t roll out. If we weren’t confident, we wouldn’t start the countdown.”

Engineers Take Advantage of the Vehicle’s Downtime

After the launch scrub on September 26 because of Hurricane Ian’s approach, engineers took advantage of the delay to focus on some technical issues that emerged during previous launch attempts.

They replaced batteries on the rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) and completed final checks on the rocket’s second stage that will propel it and the Orion capsule toward the moon. The engineering team performed tests to ensure the SLS’s solid rocket boosters and core stage jettison would perform nominally following liftoff and first-stage burn. Pressure checks were also part of the maintenance review. 

• READ MORE: NASA Inspector General: Artemis Moon Landing Will Be Delayed Another Year

NASA Forward-Looking Investment

Even as the team prepares for its next launch attempt on November 14, NASA is looking ahead to future Artemis missions. Late last month, Lockheed Martin announced the agency’s $1.99 billion order for three Orion spacecraft for the Artemis VI-VIII missions.

“This order includes spacecraft, mission planning, and support, and takes us into the 2030s,” Lisa Callahan, vice president and manager for commercial, civil space at Lockheed Martin, said in a statement. “We’re on the eve of a historic launch kicking off the Artemis era, and this contract shows NASA is making long-term plans toward living and working on the moon while also having a forward focus on getting humans to Mars.”

The post NASA Optimistic About Upcoming Artemis Launch appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

A two-hour launch window is scheduled to open at 2:17 p.m. (EDT) Saturday, officials told reporters during a teleconference. Although there is a 60 percent chance of a weather event Saturday, NASA forecasters said conditions were expected to be good enough for launch at some point during the two-hour window. If the launch is scrubbed Saturday, officials said there would be an opportunity to try for launch on Monday, September 5. 

Although they’ve set a new launch date, NASA is still trying to learn more about what caused the engine chilling issue that prompted Monday’s scrub. 

“What we need to do is continue to pore over the data and polish up our plan on putting the flight rationale together,” said Space Launch System program manager John Honeycutt.

Artemis I and its Orion spacecraft were scheduled to lift off Monday morning from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39B on the historic mission to become the first spacecraft designed to carry humans to go to the moon in nearly 50 years.

But NASA decided to scrub Monday’s launch attempt after experiencing several technical issues, including a thermal conditioning problem with RS-25 engine No. 3 on the SLS’s four-engine core stage. 

Engineers condition the engines by bleeding fuel into them to chill them to the proper temperature range immediately before launch. Because the temperature range on engine No. 3 wasn’t low enough, NASA decided to cancel the launch and solve the problem. On Tuesday, Artemis I mission manager Mike Sarafin said teams have decided to change the loading operations procedure and start chilling the engines earlier for Saturday’s launch attempt. 

NASA officials, including Administrator Bill Nelson, have repeatedly said the launch of Artemis I would not be driven by deadlines and would only launch when engineers are confident that all the components of this very complicated machine are “ready to go.”

The Plan for Liftoff 

Plans call for Artemis I’s two solid rocket boosters to separate from the spacecraft shortly after liftoff, followed a few minutes later by the SLS core stage, which includes the four RS-25 engines. 

Once Artemis I’s Orion spacecraft enters Earth orbit, mission controllers will activate an engine burn of Artemis I’s upper stage to execute a trans-lunar injection, sending the spacecraft on a trajectory toward the moon. 

During the 42-day, 1.3-million-mile flight test mission, the Artemis I Orion spacecraft is expected to spend six days in lunar orbit, gathering performance data and testing systems. NASA has said it plans to push the uncrewed spacecraft beyond its design limits. If all goes as planned, the Orion capsule will return to Earth and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego.

What’s at Stake

There’s a lot more than history riding on Artemis I. Some of the aerospace industry’s largest corporations have a big stake in the mission’s success, as well. Honeywell (NASDAQ: HON) manufactured the guidance and navigation systems aboard the spacecraft in addition to core flight software, command data handling, and displays and controls. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is the prime contractor for Orion. Boeing (NYSE: BA), Aerojet Rocketdyne (NYSE: AJRD), and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) are prime contractors for the SLS. 

Artemis I will lay the groundwork for the first crewed mission of the program. With a crew of four astronauts, Artemis II will orbit the moon and return to Earth as soon as 2024. NASA has said it expects to announce crew members sometime later this year.  

The post NASA To Try Again Saturday for Artemis I Moon Launch appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The rollback of the enormous rocket to the VAB on Saturday followed a second wet dress rehearsal on Launch Pad 39B, where engineers found a faulty seal on the quick disconnect for an umbilical cord that runs between the tail service mast and the rocket’s core stage.

“We have completed the rehearsal phase, and everything we’ve learned will help improve our ability to lift off during the target launch window,” said Tom Whitmeyer, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for common exploration systems. “The team is now ready to take the next step and prepare for launch.” 

• WATCH: Learn More About NASA’s SLS as Massive Rocket Rolls Out

Transporting the rocket the 4 miles between 39B and the VAB has proven to be a tedious process. The 322-foot-tall rocket rides atop the massive Crawler transporter, which only travels 1 mile per hour. The SLS has made more trips between the launch pad and the VAB than originally anticipated, due to several issues found during wet dress rehearsal attempts.

Now that the rehearsal campaign is complete, the rocket’s next trip to the launch pad is expected to be its final stop before Artemis I begins an uncrewed mission around the moon and back. 

NASA’s Next-Generation Spacesuits

In a video posted Tuesday, NASA detailed the challenges astronauts have faced inside their spacesuits, and how they intend to overcome them.

The agency planned to produce two flight-ready next-gen spacesuits by November 2024, but the process is in the midst of a 20-month delay due to technical challenges and complications resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Given these anticipated delays in spacesuit development, a lunar landing in late 2024 as NASA currently plans is not feasible. That said, NASA’s inability to complete development of xEMUs for a 2024 Moon landing is by no means the only factor impacting the viability of the Agency’s current return-to-the-Moon timetable,” NASA said in an Inspector General audit.

Currently, NASA’s spacesuits are based on a design that debuted in 1981 on the STS-005 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The current design is not too far removed from the one used during the Apollo missions, which had multiple issues.

For example, the Apollo astronauts found that it was easier to hop around on the lunar surface than to walk. Unable to kneel in the suit, Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke fell face-first into the ground while attempting to plant a penetrometer.

A reduced range of mobility can become deadly for astronauts in the vacuum of space, so teams at NASA have been working to address the issue in its next-generation designs. Last month, the agency announced the spacesuits, dubbed xEMU, will be used throughout the Artemis missions to the moon and Mars.

Each design comes equipped with a Portable Life Support System (PLSS), which provides astronauts with not only breathable oxygen, but an entirely pressurized environment inside the suit.

The backpack-style apparatus typically isn’t found on more streamlined spacesuits, such as those made by SpaceX, as a result of different intended uses for the suits. NASA’s spacesuits are rated for spacewalks outside of a pressurized vehicle, while others are not.

The post NASA’s Space Launch System Moves One Step Closer to First Launch appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

That’s the premise behind Apple TV+’s alternate reality space drama For All Mankind.

For two seasons we’ve seen supersonic flying, spacewalking, moonwalking, mining on the moon, guns on the moon, and The Bob Newhart Show on the moon. And as the third season premieres Friday, it’s time to ask the question: Why isn’t everyone who’s interested in NASA, Roskosmos, the Russian space agency, and companies like SpaceX watching this show?

This series takes us to an imaginary world where Apollo funding never dried up, the Soviet Union never broke up, and national interest in space exploration never wavered.  

The new season carries the U.S-Soviet space rivalry forward to the ’90s. The musical backdrop for the trailer is Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” as the U.S. and Moscow compete for a new frontier: Mars.

Also different this season is the introduction of a third rival: commercial space. A multi-billionaire CEO of a private  company called Helios Aerospace is determined to land on the Red Planet. (Now does this scenario sound familiar?)

• READ MORE: Billionaire Space Race: Does it Matter?

Many characters in For All Mankind are imaginary—but the show also features actors playing real people instrumental in the exploration of space, like John Glenn, Wernher von Braun, Gene Kranz, Deke Slayton, Sally Ride, Charlie Duke, Pete Conrad, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong.

In the first season, GA pilots will appreciate a humorous “meet cute” when two future moonwalkers enjoy a pseudo flying lesson in a beautiful 1951 single engine Cessna 195. 

To borrow a word from Star Trek’s Mr. Spock: This show is “fascinating.”  

• READ MORE: The Aviation Roots of Star Trek

The brains behind For All Mankind include Matt Wolpert, Ben Nedivi, and Ronald D. Moore— a former Star Trek writer/producer and award-winning re-imaginer of the Battlestar Galactica series. 

What Ifs

Among its chief attributes, the series presents these thought-provoking, “what if” developments and possible consequences:

• What if the Soviets walked on the moon first? In the show, this intensifies and lengthens the competition between NASA and Moscow in the race to dominate space exploration.
• What if the Space Race continued through the 1970s? The series imagines both nations with permanent space stations on the lunar surface.
• What if the Soviets landed a woman on the moon? For All Mankind envisions that this prompts the U.S. to bring women into NASA’s astronaut program in the 1970s. The best women pilots are recruited and trained. By the dates of the Apollo 15 mission in this alternate timeline, the first American woman walks on the moon. The series envisions a diverse astronaut corps, beginning in the 1970s. But race, gender, and sexual orientation continue to be issues as the space program develops.
• What if new consumer technology resulted from the continued Space Race? In the alternative 1980s, video-phones and electric cars are part of daily life.
• What if new space technology was developed? The series features a space shuttle that can fly to the moon. We see an enormous reusable rocket called Sea Dragon (which was an actual NASA proposal) that dramatically lifts off from under the ocean surface.

The history of human space exploration is relatively short, but already filled with truly amazing stories—some of which have achieved an almost mythical status. The show’s talented storytellers combine some of these actual events in space history with thrilling and entirely credible fictional scenarios—many that are genuinely unforgettable. 

With the focus now on Mars instead of the moon, For All Mankind will likely start to feel more like science fiction and less like alternate reality. 

Nonetheless, as real-world NASA makes plans to return to the moon and eventually Mars under the Artemis Program, it will be interesting to see where the imaginative minds behind For All Mankind take us next. 

The post What If the Soviets Had Walked on the Moon First? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.